Radical Living in a Comfortable World - A Blog by Seth Barnes

Businesses that help orphans

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Pine Designs - click here to buy a handmade solid unique piece of furniture

www.pinedesignsonline.com

10% of all retail sales go to help feed the orphans in Swaziland. All the furniture is handmade, solid and uniquely crafted to fit your particular space in your home. A couple, Dave and Vicki Gross, once worked at Adventures in Missions and their hearts were broken when they went to visit Swaziland. God showed them how they were to start a business and have a portion of the profits go back to feeding the poorest of the poor. Find out more about Pine Designs by going to their website or visiting them on Facebook.

Rehab Mart - click here to by discount rehabilitation and medical supplies

http://www.rehabmart.com/

Rehab Mart is an online discount medical equipment and medical supply company that is owned and operated by Occupational and Physical Therapists. All your medical needs can be found on at Rehab Mart.

The Sound of Hope - click here to buy a T-shirt!

www.thesoundofhope.org

The proceeds from just one t-shirt is enough to feed an orphan in Swaziland one meal a day for over a month! The Sound of Hope is a music-driven campaign that raises money and awareness for orphans in Swaziland, Kenya, and India. Find out more by finding our fan page and group on Facebook, or add us as a friend on myspace!

Corridor of Hope - click here to buy handmade jewelry and beautiful silk scarves from Thailand and India!

www.corridorofhope.org

At Corridor Of Hope we are devoted to connecting orphans, poverty stricken communities and YOU. We are the corridor, a passageway to help people who can't help themselves. We help bring them hope by bringing you quality and affordable products from these countries. In turn, Corridor Of Hope will donate these resources back into their communities by supporting orphans, thereby empowering YOU to help in a multifaceted way. We will bring you updates and newsletters regarding the orphans and how your purchase made a difference in their lives.

Timbali Crafts - click here to buy a handmade African purse from Swaziland!

www.timbalicrafts.org

TIMBALI CRAFTS are created by women who work as volunteer cooks at feeding centers for orphans in Swaziland, Africa, where over 40% of the population is HIV positive.

Many of the women have been widowed or abandoned, are single mothers, or grandmothers (called "gogos") raising grandchildren that have been orphaned. Craft sales help provide an income for these hard working women and their families who would otherwise have little or none. This past week was pay day for the gogos in the Nsoko area who sew the purses and table runners.

Finally, let me encourage you to copy this blog onto your own and spread the word!

Ramseys shows us his pain

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Here's a blog from my son in Haiti. As we dig through the rubble, we uncover stuff that wants to stay buried.

A man named Ramseys recently took a group of us to his home that was destroyed in the quake. We walked into the enclosed area with the mountain of rubble that was his home and glanced around at bits of furniture, walls, doors and other things that piled up on the ground.

"I was not home in the afternoon of January 12th," he told us. "It is not easy to talk about this. My dad was here, though, with my sister and her kid. This is where they found my dad," he said, pointing. "It is not easy to talk about this, he repeated. He was eating dinner. They pulled my sister out here. Her son was tucked under her arm. They were both dead. It is not easy to talk about this."

I envisioned what it must have been like, as the ground started to shake. She probably grabbed her son and didn't know what to do but hold him close. It wasn't long before the house collapsed around them. And as it did, she shielded her son with her own body.

"How do you do it?" one of the girls on the team asked Ramsey through tears. "How do you continue to follow God?"

I don't remember all that he said, but one thing did stick with me. "This is life."

This man gets brokenness and death as a huge part of life that most of us don't.

I've been realizing more and more recently how broken humanity is. The reality I grew up with in America shows me that darkness in my society is covered and hidden deep within. It's kept hidden in our injured hearts by clever wit, snippy sass, passive aggression and sarcasm that cuts at people's insecurities. Somehow we feel better by putting others down. Here's a phrase I like, "Hurt people hurt people."

We're all human, though, injured by the humanity of others. We may be trying to recover, but too afraid of being hurt again to trust another. Some may hurt us, but I know a good amount of people who thrive on bringing life and inner healing to others.

I challenge you to be vulnerable. Find a safe, trustworthy person and talk about the pain that's hard to even mention. There is strength and healing on the other side of pain, a light at the end of the tunnel.

Why we need to abandon everything

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

It's so hard to see, much less get rid of, all the things that have taken up space in our hearts - space that God himself wants to fill. We may sense, but often can't see the way various attachments crowd out the abundant life that God wants to give us. That car you take such good care of may, in a way, keep you from sponsoring an orphan through World Vision.

And you may feel a vague angst about your life without even connecting the dots - you sense something is off, but don't know what. The angst may be immobilizing, incapacitating even. And without knowing what to do, all you may sense is, "I need to make a change."

Abandon is the process of taking our hands off of those things that we have clutched to our breast. It is a process that involves turning away from them and renouncing rights to them. It is an emptying that clears away emotional space for new attachments.

Because we in America have so many things cluttering our lives, it's hard to know what keeps us connected to the identity we present to the world - our false self. The obvious things are clear enough: the addictions, the broken relationships, the stuff that fills our garage. But behind all that is no less an array of attachments that may keep us locked down in a spiritual or emotional prison that we can't see.

Attitudes and habits are often invisible to the person who owns them. You may laugh at Debbie Downer on Youtube, but be the last one to see how your wet-blanket comments keep people at arms length. Your cynicism may win you other cynical friends, but prevent you from getting to a place of intimacy with them.

Perhaps the most invisible of attachments, those most difficult to perceive, are those that are culturally defined. If all your friends are spending their evenings on the computer, for example, you may not see the way in which it limits your emotional range. Leave your own culture behind and you may be amazed at the things you thought you needed but really don't. It may blow your mind when you visit Mozambique to see that when the mothers run out of milk for their babies, they pass them on to their friends to breastfeed. You may find yourself charmed by the simplicity of life in many other countries. You may wonder about the choices you made that got you to such a dissatisfyingly complex lifestyle before you left.

And because we may have so many things crowding out the life of God and creating room for the false self in our lives, it's better that we not try to piecemeal the process of abandon. It's better to do what Jesus asked of those candidating to be his disciples - leave everything and do it now. Total abandon requires the leaving of places and relationships. It requires the quitting of commitments, some potentially good. And because it requires leaving, a journey is required.

To onlookers, inevitably this will look reckless. And when what you find on the journey is pain, it may look downright dumb. But suppose that in fact you may be unable to see all the things that have you locked into an identity that is false, one based on posing. Let's further suppose that you are committed to discovering who God intended you to be and what he made you to do. If in fact these are true, then this process of reckless abandon that takes you on a journey away from home and comfort may be the smartest, bravest thing you ever do.

Yes, you may meet sickness, robbers, and random misfortune along the way. That's the price of going along a narrow path that has just one safety net - God himself. But as you set your feet on that path, you commit to finding your true self and to a life defined by faith. You commit yourself to living a life where your life's priorities match God's.

We need to be emptied to be filled

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

At times in my life, I've felt like such a loser. I've felt like I was losing the things I held dear. Losing my job, losing my income, losing my sense of self-respect. And I couldn't help drawing the conclusion that maybe God didn't want me to be happy.

Does God want us to be happy? Yes, of course. The Bible tells us that he wants us to prosper. "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." (3 John 2-4) But what does that mean?

Some preachers take verses like that and emphasize a "name-it-claim-it" theology. They say that God wants us to be prosperous, as in he wants us to have lots of stuff. I don't think that's the way God works. Aside from the fact that a great many Bible passages warn us of the problem of having a bunch of stuff, I see a more basic problem.

Prosperity theology is all about filling - fill your wallet, fill your garage, fill your shopping list. But it has little to say about emptying, about the process of losing. The problem is that so much of God's work in our lives is the work of emptying. He want to get us to drop the useless things that fill our hands and hearts. He wants us to drop the habits that cause heartache and take us away from our purpose in life.

Try to think of an example in Scripture where a man of God didn't go through brokenness and emptying before God's purpose was revealed in him. Common sense tells you that things must be emptied before they can be filled. And if it's true in the physical realm, all the more in the spiritual realm.

It's counterintuitive that you would pray for intimacy and that God would respond by moving you toward brokenness. If that's divine love, then we'd all be excused for praying instead that God just ignore us. But moving us to brokenness is an act of grace. We're already broken - he's just helping us to recognize that. The state of brokenness is when you see what was dysfunctional all along.

When we understand that he's simply getting us to let loose of the grip we have on cheap stuff that we'll one day just throw away, we can see his emptying process for what it is - an act of love.

An abused generation

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

World Racers are in the top 10% of their generation in many ways. Out of every 10 applications or inquiries we get, one goes on the race. They are hungry, committed, and very sharp.

Yet look at where they are coming from. At our training camp, out of the 150 racers we have with us this week, over HALF of them have been physically or sexually abused at some point in their lives.

It happens behind closed doors, so people don't talk about it. But in private, before God, desiring healing, they self-identify.

While we adults obsess about politics and the obvious issues that make the front page of the newspaper, our children are being abused. While we try to protect them from life's pain, we're failing them in the most basic of ways. And worst of all, we don't even know it has happened! We're ignorant of our children's pain.

If you're a parent of two or more grown children as Karen and I are, the odds are, at least one of them has been abused and never told you about it. They're ashamed or perhaps you've never created the opening for them to share the secret that they've buried down deep.

It's horrific and it demands a response. And the questions we parents need to ask ourselves are, "What is my response? What am I going to do about it?"

When God blows your mind

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

When God speaks to you, does he ever tell you things that blow your mind? In the Bible he's always talking to his people and telling them stuff that is outside of their paradigm of life. It's so fantastic that they can't fully digest it. They come away incredulous and stuttering.

Jonah couldn't handle the call to Nineveh. "Just kill me now, Lord! I'd rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen." (Jonah 4:3)

Moses couldn't handle the call to lead a nation. "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." (Ex. 4:13)

Isaiah encountered God and said, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips." (Is. 6:5)

Peter was discombobulated on the mount of Transfiguration, initially terrified, then babbling on about building booths. (Matt. 17:4-6)

Has God ever blown your mind? Does he have the right to? When God speaks to you and asks you to do something that is going to cost you like it cost Paul when he deputized him to go as a missionary to the people he'd been terrorizing, how will you respond?

When Jesus told his disciples he was giving them authority to cast out demons, heal the sick and raise the dead, how do you think they responded? I'll bet the general tone was like Bill Cosby telling the story of Noah talking to God. Where God tells him about this huge ship he's to build and Noah says, "Right!"

How will you respond to God when he tells you to do something so impossible that only he can do it through you?

Out from the rubble: one pastor's story

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Pastor Jean Claude Belchet was under the rubble for two hours - he couldn't breathe and thought he was going to die. He made it out, but his wife and two children didn't. Still, he soldiers on. Here is his harrowing story.

Churches partnering to rebuild Haiti

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Want to see God move? God is moving in Haiti and the churches that go there from the States are experiencing it first hand. Here's a video that shows how a church in San Diego partnered up with a church in Port-au-Prince.

Yours can do the same. Go here to find out more about how.

So what's the big idea?

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

What's your life vision? We need one to get through life with some sense of purpose. Living just to eat, just to survive, is not living. Animals do that. God made us in his image as noble creatures with great creative ability. Take a few minutes to write your vision down. This one comes from 24-7 Prayer.

The Vision
So this guy comes up to me and says "what's the vision? What's the big idea?" I open my mouth and words come out like this... The vision?

The vision is JESUS - obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.

You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism.

They laugh at 9-5 little prisons. They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday. They wouldn't even notice. They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won. They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport.. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence. They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying. What is the vision ? The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation. It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games. This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause. A million times a day its soldiers

choose to lose that they might one day win the great 'Well done' of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"

And this is the sound of the underground The whisper of history in the making Foundations shaking Revolutionaries dreaming once again Mystery is scheming in whispers Conspiracy is breathing... This is the sound of the underground

And the army is discipl(in)ed.

Young people who beat their bodies into submission.

Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms. The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain".

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ? Can hormones hold them back? Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them ?

And the generation prays

like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and with great barrow loads of laughter! Waiting. Watching: 24 - 7 - 365.

Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive

inside.

On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they surrender their image or their popularity? They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,

they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.) Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus. Their words make demons scream in shopping centres. Don't you hear them coming? Herald the weirdo's! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

Stop judging by mere appearances

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I like the story where the king of Israel asks Elisha about the army attacking them. Elisha responds, "Don't be afraid; those who are with us are more than those who are with them." (2 Kings 6:16-17)

What! What was he talking about? No one was with them! They were about to be overwhelmed by a vicious army. My knees would be knocking and I'd be praying the last rites over myself. But Elisha sees something and prays, "O God, open his eyes so he may see."

Wow, what a great prayer. Something else was going on that the king just couldn't see. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't need to be praying that prayer. "O God, open my eyes so I can see."

Then the Lord opened the king's eyes and he saw "the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha." That was reality, he just needed to have his eyes of faith opened. And, of course, we are no different.

What impossible situation do you need to see through the eyes of faith? As I often say, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we're spiritual beings having a temporary human experience. The problem we have to confront is that we've been using our five senses and our rational mind so long that it's hard to perceive the world through any other lens.

Our perception is askew if not broken. Unless we switch on our spirit inside and see through the eyes of faith, we're doomed to go through life missing the spiritual big picture. And sadly, I think most of us do miss it.

Jesus had a heck of a time training his disciples to see this way. "Stop judging by mere appearances," he admonished them.

Earlier, he had told them, "The Son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees the Father doing," (John 5:19). Jesus himself was limited to what he could see happening in the Spirit realm.

But the disciples struggled as we do. When Jesus tells them to feed the great crowd following them, Philip processes the situation through his rational mind and declares, "Eight months wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" He needed to open his spiritual eyes and see what God was doing.

So again I ask, what problem are you seeing through your physical eyes? What army is surrounding you? Isn't it time you acted like the son or daughter of the Most High God that you are and ask him what he is doing in that situation? We need to open our spiritual eyes and stop judging by mere appearances. Life is too short. Without the eyes of faith - that is, without our spiritual eyes open - Scripture tells us, it's impossible to please God. (Heb. 11:6).

Discipling requires physical fitness

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Every afternoon at 4:30 pm at the AIM office, about a dozen of our staff gather for hard workout according to the video Insanity. And I say "go for it." I'm more of a runner, but maybe I'll join them one of these days. Living in a sedentary world, we need to maintain our bodies in much the same way we maintain our cars. It needs to be a key part of our discipleship.

Discipling requires instruction about stewardship. One of the most important areas of stewardship you have is your physical body - your "earth suit" that carries around your spirit. If you believe that we are not human beings having temporary spiritual experiences, but spiritual beings having a temporary human experience, then you understand the care of your body as a resource.

When we disciple people, we need to help them work through this issue. Too many of us have a self-image that is tied to our weight and so, often this issue never gets addressed in a discipling relationship. We need to set that aside and just look at our habits. Poor habits can result in poor stewardship and future pain.

Two recent discoveries are fascinating in this regard. The first, as explained in this article, shows at a cellular level how physical exercise helps increase your mental capacity. Exercise results in the production of a protein creatively named "Noggin" that inhibits the deterioration of neurons. We tend to think of intelligence in a limited way - ability to remember facts. Psychologist Howard Gardner tells there are seven different kinds of intelligence. You can sharpen each of them through exercise.

The second discovery as explained by David Shenk in the WSJ, explodes the notion that we're born with a certain, pre-determined capacity. The vast majority of us do not come close to tapping what scientists call our "unactualized potential." As Shenk states, "Genes are not, as was originally thought, blueprints with fixed instructions for eye color, thumb size, mathematical quickness, musical sensitivity, etc. Instead, genes are more like volume knobs and switches on a giant control board. Many of those knobs and switches can be turned on and off at any time- by another gene or by any tiny environmental input." At a cellular level a lot of things impact the way DNA is transcribed into RNA - it is not a photocopying process.

The bottom line is, we need to get in touch with the control that God has given over our minds and our bodies. The decisions we make about lifestyle have enormous impact.

Now, let's address the general trend. According to this article in the Amednews, the average American is 23 pounds overweight and "researchers found that obesity rates increased 37% between 1998 and 2006 and accounted for an 89% increase in obesity spending, or another $40 billion a year."

All the extra weight is highly correlated to sickness. And the answer is not complicated: Exercise more; stop eating sugars and starches, and especially stop drinking soda. As the article states, "Soft drinks may be among the largest drivers of the obesity epidemic." The sugar loads you up with extra calories that you can't afford, and beyond that, it stresses your pancreas, which is the organ that enables your body to process sugar. Tax the pancreas too much and you get diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is soaring - it has doubled in the last decade.

Almost as bad are all carbs we take in, especially stuff made of white, processed flour. As Dr. Arthur Agatston explains, "Simple carbohydrates are converted by your body into sugar which causes a spike in insulin which in turn enables the storage of fat. It also wreaks havoc on your system as your body responds to sugar highs and lows and cravings."

If this hits close to home for you, you've got two options, change your diet and change the way you exercise. The South Beach Diet gives you some good tools in changing your diet. Exercise is a more personal thing. It used to be a natural part of life for an agrarian and industrial society. But now that a majority of people have jobs that require little exercise, you have to make decisions about how you're going to manage your body's need for a good regular work-out. If you're undisciplined or have self-image issues that keep you from addressing the matter head-on, I suggest you get help. And if you have a mesomorph body shape, you may find that half an hour or an hour of exercise a day is what you need.

The fact is, all of us face this issue of how to "perform regular maintenance" on our bodies. Nearly a decade ago, my doctor told me I was overweight and needed to make some changes. We all need to reflect on what it takes to be a good steward of the only physical body we'll ever have.

For 20 specific steps to healthy living, read this blog post.

Top 10 blogs on sethbarnes.com

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The concept of the "long-tail" is interesting in the context of blogs. Some blog posts have a long shelf-life. The longer they're around, the more momentum they get and the more they climb the search-engine rankings. I did some research to go back through the last five year of blogging I've done and was surprised to see the blogs that had most viewers. Here they are - the numbers to the right are the number of people who have read them.

1. Are short-term missions becoming faddish? 54,143

2. How I helped liberate Dachau camp 46,766

3. Delhi orphanages: How you can get involved 35,515

4. Revival in Lakeland, FL 31,299

5. I'll disciple you 15,459

6. What do you say to a dying friend? 14,500

7. What is Christian art? 14,225

8. Mother Teresa's poem - "Anyway" 13,733

9. Fathers, bless your children 13,393

10. Raised from the dead or a hoax? 11,595,

And the next three just for kicks:

The Daniel fast is more than a diet 11,339

Free leadership training resources 9,450

3 year-old sex slave 8,409

Scared to death at gunpoint in Tanzania

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Our team in Tanzania was robbed at gunpoint this past week. A group of about 15 broke in to where they were staying. Thankfully the team is OK. We have moved them to a protected place half an hour away and have flown counselors down to help them process what happened. We appreciate your prayers. As Jesus said in Matt. 10, "But don't be afraid of those who threaten you. Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body." Jessi Marquez tells the harrowing story.

"Please God, protect us. I can't die like this...I still have so much to do with my life."

There is something different about a prayer when you think it may be your last. When you are praying for your life, I believe it's then that God literally puts you in the palm of His hand.

I hate when people say "The day began just like any other day..." but this one did...Kinda. We had woken up at 9 am and ate breakfast as a team. I had a weird pain in my legs and was feeling very nauseous. Before going out to do door to door evangelism, my team and ministry contact David prayed for healing for me. They went out and I stayed back reading "The reason for God" by Timothy Keller. When they came back a few hours later, they had amazing stories of what had happened that day. They had prayed for a women that was paralyzed and SHE WAS HEALED! She also accepted Christ into her life. I spoke to David about the day and we discussed what doing the work of the Kingdom looks like. He said that "we have been doing so much for Gods Kingdom that the enemy may try to discourage us".

A few hours later we had church. Tyler and Jillian gave the message that night. There were about 10 people there that night, granted it was a Wednesday night service. Jillians message really stuck with me. She spoke about how Jim Elliot was willing to die for Christ, and she wondered if she was as well. She then probed us a step further and said that if we ARE willing to die for Christ, are we willing to LIVE for him as well. The whole church then prayed for my healing and God kept saying to me "sow and reap, sow and reap". The pastor then told us about someone nearby that was sick. He asked two of us to go and pray for them. Tyler and I volunteered, as the rest of the team headed back to the house.

We arrived at the house, and found out that the person sick was a little boy. He had cancer. They couldn't afford treatment for him so he just lived with the pain. The pain was severe in his leg and stomach. As I leaned over and prayed for him and said "God, this is where we NEED you to heal this boy. You send us out to heal the sick. This boy has no means of being healed but by your grace." At that point, all the pain in my legs and stomach went away. It was as though I was having the pain, for this little boy. I continued to pray for him, and I believe that God will heal him.

We then returned to the house and Jessica, Jillian, and Trevor were working out. We all laughed together as they did the intense moves of P90X. After the workout, our contacts David and Martin called us to the kitchen for dinner. As I walked over to the table I heard a huge bang. It sounded like a tree falling onto the door. Then I heard the pound again, and it was coming from the back door of our kitchen. My instincts told me that this was not normal. I screamed " someone is breaking in!" and I ran towards my bedroom.

A moment later and the intruders had broken through the back door using cement blocks. They marched forward with a gunman in the front, and men with clubs in their hands. My team scattered frantically trying to find somewhere to go. (From this point forward, I can only tell you my account of the story because we were all separated).

I had run into my bedroom, turned off the light, and closed the door. Jenae knocked on the door and said "Jessi, let me in, its Jenae." I opened the door and the key fell out of the lock. Jenae came in and I slammed the door shut behind her. I was unable to lock the door, so I braced it with my body. Jenae ran around the room trying to find somewhere for us to hide. We were unable to fit under the bed, and the closet had no coverage because there were no doors. I told Jenae to just help me hold the door. She sat beside me and braced her leg in the door frame of the storage closet.

I began praying harder then I have ever prayed in my life. I asked God for forgiveness for my sins, and to protect us. I said to God "God, I can't die like this...I can't die like this...I know you have so much you still want me to do..please help us." I then heard them break down Trevors door. My heart started beating so hard I could feel it in my mouth. Jenae and I grabbed each others hand and held our fingers interlocked until our knuckles turned white. I could hear the men screaming, and I couldn't hear anyone from my team. I believed this was the end of my life. After watching movies based in Africa such as Blood Diamond and Hotel Rwanda...I believed these intruders would be merciless. I then started praying again, even harder..."God, protect us. We need you right now God. I command them to flee in the name of Jesus. They have no place here."

The men then surrounded our room and started looking into the windows. Jenae and I stood motionless. I don't even think I breathed in that moment. I thought, if they think the room is empty maybe they wont come in. Like Jenae describes, "It was like the worst version of hide and go seek."

Then they began banging on our door. They were screaming and pushing on our door so hard. They opened the door a little bit and we pushed back. My feet were sweaty and sliding across the tiled floor as I used my legs to push my back against the bottom of the door. They kept pushing. Jenae asked me if we should just let them in, in fear that they would begin shooting through the door. I said NO! In my mind, we were as good as dead if that door opened. Eventually they stopped trying to get in. I then began shaking. My whole body felt as if it were going into shock, I couldn't stop shaking. I then began to worry about Jessica and Jillian. I feared that the men were doing horrible things to them, and that we needed to be together. I stood up, and wanted to help them. I felt completely helpless. Jenae said "Jessi, we can't go out there! Just hold the door"!

A few minutes later, but what felt like an hour...I heard Trevor at the door. He said "Girls, are you ok"? Never before did it sound so amazing to hear a familiar voice. We stood up and opened the door. Relieved and still scared at what I might see in the living room, I started to cry hysterically. We then saw Jessica and Jillian, and I hugged them as hard as possible. Jessica and I held each other crying, and my body would not stop shaking. I asked if we could just stay together, and we waited in the hall together until help came.

The robbers stole computers, passports, tents, thousands of dollars, cameras, clothing, packs and other things from my team. We are now staying at a guarded house about 30 minutes from the incident. The last few days has been hard on our team. Grieving the missing items, replacing passports, reliving the traumatic situation, and moving forward is a unique process. We have all been processing this situation differently, but we are all moving forward.

One morning while journaling about the event, I was wondering how the men did not get through to our room. They had thrown a cement block through the lower panel of Trevors door. If they had done that through Jenae and I's door...we would have been either severely injured or killed because of the way our bodies were holding the door shut. I then remembered something that had happened earlier that morning. When I was sick, and everyone prayed for healing over my body...God had said to me " Jessi, pray over your room." I thought this was weird, what did this have to do with my illness. I asked Jessica to come into my room that morning and we closed the door. She prayed over the room with me and said " I seal the doors and windows in this room, no evil can enter the room in Jesus name."

A few hours later, evil was trying to enter the room...and no one did. God protected us, and was faithful in answering our prayers. Not one hair was touched on one of my teammates. Our contact David told us that this happens a lot, and often times...people are killed. However, our lives were spared.

You begin to look at life differently when it is so close to being taken away. I am still working through the situation, praying that the flashbacks end. However, I know now that my life will never be the same. Life just seems, well...worth living.

Educating Haiti's children

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

How is the school system in your community? Compare it to the one in Haiti.

Right outside our base in Port-au-Prince, a school has started up in the open air under tarps and sheds. They are crammed into tight, tight quarters - maybe a thousand kids. Most of the teachers work for free. Earthquakes can devastate and crush the body, but the human spirit is hard to crush. Here's a report.

Getting victory over the kingdom of evil

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

We followers of Jesus in America need greater understanding concerning the ways and tactics of evil. The bottom line is, you have a creator who loves you and an enemy who hates you and wants to destroy you. If you've never been involved in a deliverance session or at least studied about how to help someone who is in the grips of evil get free, then to put it plainly, there is a serious gap in your discipleship process. It's like playing a football game blindfolded. You owe it to yourself to learn more (you might begin with some of my past blogs on the subject).

As our teams travel around the world, it is quite normal to encounter spiritual warfare and demonic manifestations. This is not medieval and it's not psychosomatic. It's real. Jesus gave his disciples "authority to cast out demons" when he sent them out (Luke 9-10). It's time you wielded that authority too. Our team will do better if you do.

A couple of stories from this past week may help you decide to delve into the subject. The first from Mwanza, Tanzania as shared by World Racer David Stothart. Please also watch the video that follows and share your thoughts.

We go to the first house and it was a lady from our pastor's church. We all assumed that we were there to encourage her in some way so we begin to talk to her and she tells us about her daughter.

This woman's family had been deeply affected by witch craft for generations. Her own mother is a witch-doctor and has been training the granddaughter in with-doctery for awhile. The witch-doctor that trained the grandmother had killed the mother's husband, brother-in-law and her firstborn child through witch doctor ways. What?! And now the daughter was becoming involved in it through the grandmother.

Pastor told us that last time she had been around people who were worshipping God the demon inside her manifested and tried to kill her by choking her with her own hands. So now we know that we are dealing with a demon possessed woman. We ask the daughter a ton of questions but have to leave because of time. So the next day we bring some praise songs and try to see if what the pastor is telling us is true. We pour ourselves into it but nothing happens. She tells us she wants to be delivered but we run out of time again and so we ask her to come back again.

This time we dive right into a salvation prayer for her after she tells us she understands who Jesus is and his sacrifice for her. After this Pastor takes over and tells Amanda and Kerry to help pray and tells me to sing some worship songs to bring the Spirit to our situation. He says a few words to her in Swahili and she falls to the floor stiff as a board. Here's the dialogue as translated by pastor:

Girl: (whining and crying)

Pastor: In the name of Jesus leave!

Girl: I am going but I was sent!

Pastor: Who were you sent by?

Girl: (says a name in Swahili)

Pastor: (looks at the mother) who is that? Do you know them?

Mother: yes that is her grandmother...

Pastor: (prays some more in Swahili)

Girl: (calms down and stops thrashing...finally wakes up and sits up)

By this point we were all asking her if she was ok. She had come in with bad stomach pains saying that it felt like something was wriggling around. And her eyesight had become worse since yesterday. After the demon left she had no more pain and could see completely clear! Bwana asufiwe (praise God)!

We of course had tons of questions and pastor answered most of them. The only conclusion I can come to is that God is way more awesome and mighty and sovereign than I thought. He is a God who cares so much for his people that He cries when they are hurt, shows them his creation in the most beautiful ways and even gaurds their very lives. Praise God you guys.

The second story comes from Haiti this past week. In the video below, 14-year-old Nehemie shares her story of being delivered from voodoo. Pastor David Douchard and others in their community in Carrefour, Haiti are heroes in so many ways.

American dream Is elusive for millenials

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

One reason that young people need to take a Luke 10 journey is that the American dream is not only a mirage, it's not even available to them if they wanted it. Check out this excerpt from an article in Yahoo of a shocking situation: my children's generation has a 37% unemployment rate. The silver lining is, you might as well trust God in a radical way if your options are this limited. What have you got to lose?

GRAFTON, Mass. - After breakfast, his parents left for their jobs, and Scott Nicholson, alone in the house in this comfortable suburb west of Boston, went to his laptop in the living room. He had placed it on a small table that his mother had used for a vase of flowers until her unemployed son found himself reluctantly stuck at home.

The daily routine seldom varied. Mr. Nicholson, 24, a graduate of Colgate University, winner of a dean's award for academic excellence, spent his mornings searching corporate Web sites for suitable job openings. When he found one, he mailed off a rsum and cover letter - four or five a week, week after week.

Over the last five months, only one job materialized. After several interviews, the Hanover Insurance Group in nearby Worcester offered to hire him as an associate claims adjuster, at $40,000 a year. But even before the formal offer, Mr. Nicholson had decided not to take the job.

Scott's grandfather, William S. Nicholson, a World War II veteran and a retired stock broker, has watched what he described as America's once mighty economic engine losing its pre-eminence in a global economy. The grandfather has encouraged his unemployed grandson to go abroad - to "Go West," so to speak.

"I view what is happening to Scott with dismay," said the grandfather, who has concluded, in part from reading The Economist, that Europe has surpassed America in offering opportunity for an ambitious young man. "We hate to think that Scott will have to leave," the grandfather said, "but he will."

The grandfather's injunction startled the grandson. But as the weeks pass, Scott Nicholson, handsome as a Marine officer in a recruiting poster, has gradually realized that his career will not roll out in the Greater Boston area - or anywhere in America - with the easy inevitability that his father and grandfather recall, and that Scott thought would be his lot, too, when he finished college in 2008.

"I don't think I fully understood the severity of the situation I had graduated into," he said, speaking in effect for an age group - the so-called millennials, 18 to 29 - whose unemployment rate of nearly 14 percent approaches the levels of that group in the Great Depression. And then he veered into the optimism that, polls show, is persistently, perhaps perversely, characteristic of millennials today. "I am absolutely certain that my job hunt will eventually pay off," he said.

For young adults, the prospects in the workplace, even for the college-educated, have rarely been so bleak. Apart from the 14 percent who are unemployed and seeking work, as Scott Nicholson is, 23 percent are not even seeking a job, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The total, 37 percent, is the highest in more than three decades and a rate reminiscent of the 1930s.

The college-educated among these young adults are better off. But nearly 17 percent are either unemployed or not seeking work, a record level (although some are in graduate school). The unemployment rate for college-educated young adults, 5.5 percent, is nearly double what it was on the eve of the Great Recession, in 2007, and the highest level - by almost two percentage points - since the bureau started to keep records in 1994 for those with at least four years of college.

Yet surveys show that the majority of the nation's millennials remain confident, as Scott Nicholson is, that they will have satisfactory careers. They have a lot going for them.

"They are better educated than previous generations and they were raised by baby boomers who lavished a lot of attention on their children," said Andrew Kohut, the Pew Research Center's director. That helps to explain their persistent optimism, even as they struggle to succeed.

Scott Nicholson also has connections, of course, but no one in his network of family and friends has been able to steer him into marketing or finance or management training or any career-oriented opening at a big corporation, his goal. The jobs are simply not there.

The Millennials' Inheritance

The Great Depression damaged the self-confidence of the young, and that is beginning to happen now, according to pollsters, sociologists and economists. Young men in particular lost a sense of direction, Glen H. Elder Jr., a sociologist at the University of North Carolina, found in his study, "Children of the Great Depression." In some cases they were forced into work they did not want - the issue for Scott Nicholson.

Military service in World War II, along with the G.I. Bill and a booming economy, restored well-being; by the 1970s, when Mr. Elder did his retrospective study, the hardships of the Depression were more a memory than an open sore. "They came out of the war with purpose in their lives, and by age 40 most of them were doing well," he said, speaking of his study in a recent interview.

The outlook this time is not so clear. Starved for jobs at adequate pay, the millennials tend to seek refuge in college and in the military and to put off marriage and child-bearing. Those who are working often stay with the jobs they have rather than jump to better paying but less secure ones, as young people seeking advancement normally do. And they are increasingly willing to forgo raises, or to settle for small ones.

"They are definitely more risk-averse," said Lisa B. Kahn, an economist at the Yale School of Management, "and more likely to fall behind."

In a recent study, she found that those who graduated from college during the severe early '80s recession earned up to 30 percent less in their first three years than new graduates who landed their first jobs in a strong economy. Even 15 years later, their annual pay was 8 to 10 percent less.

Many hard-pressed millennials are falling back on their parents, as Scott Nicholson has. While he has no college debt (his grandparents paid all his tuition and board) many others do, and that helps force them back home.

In 2008, the first year of the recession, the percentage of the population living in households in which at least two generations were present rose nearly a percentage point, to 16 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. The high point, 24.7 percent, came in 1940, as the Depression ended, and the low point, 12 percent, in 1980.

Striving for Independence

"Going it alone," "earning enough to be self-supporting" - these are awkward concepts for Scott Nicholson and his friends. Of the 20 college classmates with whom he keeps up, 12 are working, but only half are in jobs they "really like." Three are entering law school this fall after frustrating experiences in the work force, "and five are looking for work just as I am," he said.

Like most of his classmates, Scott tries to get by on a shoestring and manages to earn enough in odd jobs to pay some expenses.

The jobs are catch as catch can. He and a friend recently put up a white wooden fence for a neighbor, embedding the posts in cement, a day's work that brought Scott $125. He mows lawns and gardens for half a dozen clients in Grafton, some of them family friends. And he is an active volunteer firefighter.

"As frustrated as I get now, and I never intended to live at home, I'm in a good situation in a lot of ways," Scott said. "I have very little overhead and no debt, and it is because I have no debt that I have any sort of flexibility to look for work. Otherwise, I would have to have a job, some kind of full-time job."

That millennials as a group are optimistic is partly because many are, as Mr. Kohut put it, the children of doting baby boomers - among them David Nicholson and his wife, Susan, 56, an executive at a company that owns movie theaters.

Click here to finish the article.

Luke 10 Extreme Team Challenge

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Will the Luke 10 approach that Jesus gave to his disciples work in our modern day? A few people who believe that it will are going to put their faith to the test next year (as early as January). We're calling it the Extreme Team.

In Luke 10, (see yesterday's post), Jesus sent his disciples out to visit the surrounding villages to bring hope. He didn't let them take anything more than the clothes on their back.

It was an incredible spiritual high-wire act. Given their experience to that point, you'd expect them to flounder and fail. You'd expect them to return bedraggled and confused.

In fact, quite the opposite happens. They experience spiritual fireworks - exciting ministry success. They actually start to do the sort of thing that Jesus did. When they return to tell Jesus about it, a celebration ensues. Their faith soars.

The question is, "Does this stuff still work?" I'd like to see us give it a roll. I'm asking a small group of you to go out in the same way that Jesus sent out his disciples in Luke 10. This isn't a program and there aren't any funds to raise. We'll do what Jesus said to do, following his guidance at each step.

A few of the places we may go: The Sudan, Pakistan, and Cambodia. I've been praying about this for years. Our World Racers get to practice it some, but this is another level. A number of you have expressed an interest. Feel free to get in touch using the comment section or here and I'll send you information.

The amazing Luke 10 journey

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

For the last 20 years or so, I've been challenged by a Scripture that's so incredible, I'm tempted to discount it as being utterly impractical for our modern times. But I can't help myself - I keep coming back to the account of Jesus sending out his disciples to places they'd never been with a message they'd only recently heard, and authority they'd never tested. You can read about it in Luke 9 and 10 or Matthew 10. Jesus starts off saying:

As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' ⁸Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. ⁹Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; ¹⁰take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff;

When we send out our World Racers, we send them with a backpack and some money in the bank. In contrast, here was the disciples packing list:

No money

No traveler's bag

No change of clothes

No shoes

No walking stick

And what do you suppose the disciples were thinking as they contemplated the ministry assignment Jesus gave them? Just imagine you're on a mission trip with Jesus as the leader and he tells you you're going to:

preach the kingdom of God

heal the sick

raise the dead

cure those with leprosy

cast out demons

I'd be Joe Pesci, "OK, OK, hang on, a second here! Did you say, raise the dead? What's that about??" But Jesus doesn't pause for Q&A with the disciples. While their eyes are still crossing, he goes on to give them a risk assessment:

But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues.
You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers.
When you are arrested, don't worry about how to respond or what to say.
A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child,
Children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed
And all nations will hate you because you are my followers.
When you are persecuted in one town, flee to the next.
But don't be afraid of those who threaten you.
Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul.

What would your response to this be? Here you're told to do crazy, supernatural stuff like bringing dead people back to life, yet you're told to leave everything you own behind. And in case you're thinking, "If I try to do that stuff, I'm surely going to create a ruckus," he confirms your deepest concerns: "Not only will you create a ruckus, but it's going to be embarrassing and painful and you may die."

Well, that's comforting. But not exactly how we do business in the 20th century.

When I think about them sitting around, this motley crew that had done nothing of consequence so far, I imagine there must have been some pushback when Jesus finished his instructions. Of course we don't read about that. But it can't have been easy for them to swallow - not Thomas, not Judas, not the ever-inquisitive Peter.

God is still asking us to do the impossible today and live to tell about it. Yesterday one of our teams was held up at gunpoint in Tanzania and robbed of everything they own. And we had done what Jesus said - found the man of peace and were in his compound at the time. That kind of thing scares me to death and makes me want to stop sending young people to countries where danger lurks. I want to play it safe.

But, then there is this Scripture and this story of what this guy who I've made Lord of my life did with his disciples. And if I'm to be serious about my commitment, I can't duck and run. So, here's where I come out: Instead of engaging in risk arbitrage, more of us need to allow him to throw us into the deep end so that we can begin to see how amazing it is when he provides for us in that place.

[I'm serious about testing Jesus in this. If you're interested in exploring with me what that might look like - let me know. I'll send you a Luke 10 Manual and introduce you to some others who are saying, "Here am I, send me." Somehow, we're going to do this and I'd like to begin next year, perhaps in SE Asia.]

Waiting on God to speak

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

A few years ago we were praying with a friend of mine who was troubled. He had gone through a hard time in his life. The pain of divorce and layoffs left him feeling far from God.

I didn't have any answers for him, though it was tempting to try to give him the thin gruel of trite encouragement that such moments always seem to prompt: "It's OK, things are going to get better. You'll see better days, yada, yada."

Actually it was better to just ask God a question, say nothing more, and wait for him to speak. One of the things I believe, based on my experience and subsequent search of Scripture, is that God speaks to us in ways that connect with us at a deep level. In ways that when we're needy, can explode in our soul and re-awaken us to the fact that he loves us.

So, my friend asked God, "Lord, is there anything you'd like to say to me?" And we sat there in silence, waiting for what might say.

It was a bold, potentially reckless thing to do. What if God didn't show up? What if all we heard was silence? What if the cynics were right?

The cynics had been the only voice my friend had listened to for quite a while - they had had their say. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. So, we hoped and waited.

And as we waited, my friend began to cry. We let the moment linger and then I spoke.

"What did he say?"

"He said, "I've missed you."

And that was all he needed to say. It said everything.

It said, "I created you to be in relationship with me."

It said, "Where have you been?"

It said, "I love you."

Isn't that the cry of all of our hearts? Don't you long to hear that from the Almighty? We go wandering in dry and lonely deserts, thirsting for living water, and when we finally grow sick enough of the wandering to wait on God, his tender voice overwhelms us.

If you feel like my friend (and who doesn't from time to time), my counsel is, take the time to go to some quiet place* - maybe a forest, maybe a closet - and ask him if he has anything to say. Maybe ask him the question, "Lord, what do you think about me?"

I'm betting that he's missed you and you'll find him waiting for you there.

*Take a Bible and a journal and maybe a list of questions.

Can you afford to be cynical?

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I grew up cynical. I hung out with cynical friends. I went to a cynical college. And I live in a cynical culture. In America, our politics are cynical and worldly-wise. Our media brims to overflowing with cynicism. It's an insidious poison that militates against the worship that God wants from us.

Somewhere in my 30's, God broke me of cynicism. Pain visited my life in such a searing way that I just couldn't afford it any more - it was too costly. A cynic has the luxury of knowing enough of the answer to be able to discount the possibility being offered to him. And when I lost my job and other things that gave me a sense of security, I was a man floundering in the water. If, as the Bible says, hope is "an anchor to the soul,"* then mine was adrift.

The most committed cynic is an atheist. Jen McCreight, for example, is a young lady who has concluded that anybody following Jesus and believing in a God who loves us personally is severely deluded. She writes a blog that promotes the gospel of rationalism. Everything has a scientific explanation. And it's cool to lambast the foolish, religious tools who trust in an unseen God.

I wonder what she would say about the angels that Justine Zins heard? Perhaps someone was playing a prank. Perhaps it was a radio next door that happened to sound like the song they were singing. Or it was the product of an overactive imagination. There may not be an obvious explanation, but at least there's got to be a non-supernatural one.

It's always perplexed me how someone whose highest principle is skepticism can be so committed to the proposition that something she can't disprove is in fact false. It's the intellectually dishonest bias of the religion of political correctness.

What's the cost of being cynical? Well, for one thing, cynical people are a wet blanket on everyone's day. Being friends with a cynic takes psychic energy.

But in my book the biggest price that cynics pay is that of missing out on the truth. Thomas was cynical (John 20:19-31) about the biggest event of his life: Jesus' resurrection. Bummer of an issue to get wrong. What a way to be remembered for all of history: "doubting Thomas."

But at least he stepped up to the plate to be proven wrong. How much worse is it to shut the door to the God of the universe without ever giving him a fair opportunity to prove his love to you? Or to never understand the possibility of the one thing your heart yearns for, to know your creator, if in fact he exists. Or to understand the power of faith, "without which it is impossible to please God." (Hebrews 11:6)

If you're predisposition is to snicker at or belittle those with whom you disagree, if you struggle to believe in the stuff that you can't prove with an equation, I invite you to consider the notion that the finest things in life, things like love, beauty, and laughter, don't make sense. To get more of them, you need to abandon the cynical posture that, far from protecting truth, may have kept it at arm's length.

*Hebrews 6:19

When the kingdom of heaven intersects our world

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Last Friday night Estie returned from an evening at a nearby house of prayer. She's a practical girl, prone to skepticism, and when she showed me the gold dust on her hands, I could hear the incredulity in her voice.

Many of us join with her in asking the question, "Why is it that gold dust shows up out of thin air? What is that about?"

I chalk it up to the kingdom of heaven intersecting our reality. Some scientists have suggested that there are perhaps seven dimensions, most of them beyond our understanding of a space-time continuum. If so, the kingdom of heaven exists in all of them. What happens when it intersects our simple three dimensional world? Intersections abound if we'll look for them.

And it radicalizes us when our limited understanding of reality is too small to hold that reality. For a great current example, read this blog by Jamie Neumann.

Because we tend to live our lives according to our five senses, Jesus used analogies to describe it. The video below helps bring them to life. It's worth considering: How has your understanding of reality been impacted by an intersection with the kingdom of heaven?

Why the poor in spirit are blessed

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Here's an excerpt of a great article by Jimmy McCarty from Wrecked.

Guatemalans smile a lot. They are polite, hospitable, friendly and patient with most attempts at Spanish. Pastor Domingo bent down on eye level and greeted the old woman, whom we learned was named Maria. As we began hearing more about Maria's story we discovered that she was the widowed mother of eleven.

As most of the men in the family were either missing or dead, the family's income was almost completely resigned to the crocheting of hacky-sacks (which were purchased by a man in town and taken across Lake Atitlan to sell to tourists).

As I began to assess the severity of the situation, Maria looked us in the eye without a care in the world and professed her belief that God would provide - he always had.

I began to reflect on my own life. As a white, middle-class American child, I grew up wanting for nothing. I never missed a meal (and enjoyed many of them), I had clean clothes that fit, a family that loved me, friends to play with and entertainment outlets virtually anytime I wanted them. In short, I needed nothing. Fast forward twenty years and see a similar life of a young, attractive college graduate embarking on a career trek where the sky is the limit. An attractive girlfriend, new car, prestigious social circle and the like are but scratching the surface of all that life holds for a fortunate young man.

Yet, if I am honest my faith doesn't hold a candle to Maria. I've never been in need. I've never been desperate. There has never been a time in my life when a safety net didn't exist. On a deeper level - there's also never been a time I can say I've truly been in complete desperation of the presence of God. Consider the statement: He who has everything needs nothing. The simplicity and apparent redundancy of this statement should not be discarded before pragmatic application is sought. The easiest times, the most comfortable, rob us of desperation for the presence of God. How often do we go about our lives, eating our meals, driving our cars, swiping the credit card for anything that meets our fancy only to have rushed, obligatory, mediocre times spent with our Creator (assuming we remember to in the first place)? Yet, the absence of basic needs, being in difficult relationships, or surviving in environments that are spiritually oppressed are all times of suffering that invoke within us a desperation for the presence of God.

How clear God's voice in the storm. How close is His touch in the battle. Discovering desperation in comfort is a battle few realize they are fighting. Those extravagantly blessed often pity those in need. Yet, the faith of those suffering, the faith I gain when forced to run to the arms of my father, shames any substitute the world has to offer.

Trusting God is terrifying, but it's more peaceful than any secure tower I've constructed for myself. It's not dependence that's hard, it's the leap of faith to dependence that's the challenge. The leap back is easy. It's living with the smiling reassurance that "God will provide" that is difficult. If anything, I've learned this: I do not enjoy suffering, but I like who I become when I am in the midst of it.

Want to change? Pray for brokenness

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Here's Chelsea Dipaolo's story of how her life changed. It illustrates how hard the process can be. It takes a good measure of brokenness along the way. We've come to expect it from the World Race - a modern-day initiation experience that our 20-somethings desperately need.

It's insanely scary to stand at the beginning of an epic, staring over the abyss, with absolutely no idea what the adventure will hold.

The first month of the Race was mostly terrible for me. The adjustment was extremely difficult. I dreaded every night sleeping in my tent during hurricanes. I hated the fact that relationships were so awkward, but most people were faking it. I cried because I was flying to Romania and not home when we went to the airport for the first time as a squad.

As the months went on, things improved. I loved ministry, saw God work, and started to develop deeper relationships with my teammates. Little by little I got better at adjusting to shattered expectations and new situations. Then we hit month four in Israel. It was the month that I was most looking forward to, but once we got there, it was mostly a disappointment.

My worst day of the World Race was the day before Thanksgiving. Our squad went out into the Negev to worship, and I literally sat there for two hours crying my eyes out. I was lonely. I was tired. I was homesick. I was done.

Africa broke me down. I think because people are struggling to survive much of the time, there isn't really much of an opportunity to present things other than exactly the way that they are. Believers there know they are weak. They know that they live each day hanging by a thread held by God. This kind of attitude is contagious. I want to bring this attitude home with me and encourage people to shout their problems from the rooftop.

In Uganda I had a terrible dream that set me on a two-month course of digging up dirt from my life and laying it out before God and others. It was really hard, but experiencing God's complete healing and redemption and acceptance was addictive for me.

One night after I had spent a lot of time coming clean before God, I experienced God in an amazing and intimate way, and I felt like it was his stamp of approval, his way of showing me that the more of myself that I give to him, the more of himself he'll give to me. Many of those days I felt like God was taking a piece of steel wool and scrubbing me raw from the inside out. I had to confront stuff that I never wanted to deal with, that I had talked myself into believing I had dealt with. I had to have hard conversations, seek forgiveness from people I had wronged, and in general do things that I didn't want to do. It was like forcing myself to take cough syrup. I didn't love it, but I knew it was good for me, and I was compelled to see the process through to the end.

Before I came on the World Race I was mostly a brat. I took Jesus' sacrifice for granted. I was lazy about sin. I did what I wanted and abused God's love and grace. I constantly compared myself to other people to make myself feel better-what I did wasn't that bad, and look at all the things I'm sacrificing for God.

My perspective has completely changed. Any sacrifice that I feel like I'm making pales in comparison to the one that Jesus made on my behalf.

I'm throwing caution to the wind and listening carefully to what God is telling me to do. I've known for a long time that I'm called to international missions for at least some part of my life. I used to be excited but also dread the day when that call would become a reality in my life.

There are days when I'm afraid. I feel like a little girl, so incapable of doing anything of substance. But I have a faithful God to fall back on. I have such confidence these days. There have been many moments over the past few months when I've surprised myself. I've been called upon and without hesitation I've spoken God's words, sang his songs, and walked out His will for me.

If I try to summarize the whole year and all the growth that's happened, my head explodes. I've grown in patience. In believing the power of prayer. In obedience. In speaking life and holding fast to truth. In confidence in my spiritual gifts.

There was the time in Uganda when we went to Nancy's house and Pastor Stephen said that "the evangelists" had a word to share. That meant it was my turn to speak. I opened my mouth and God used me to speak a word of renewal to her entire family. I thought about how earlier in the year I wouldn't have been able to speak out with such confidence.

I've learned how to use my singing for the Lord. I don't have the best voice, but I can sing, and I can use it to bring God's presence into a room. One time in Vietnam, some of us were at a home for cancer patients. One of the ladies there told us that she wanted each one of us to sing a solo. At an earlier point in the Race, I would have been loath to sing by myself for a bunch of people. I belted out "Trading My Sorrows" and was able to bring joy into that room.

And most recently, as we went out into the bars and ministered to the women working there, I felt used by God like never before. I went into the last month feeling completely spent. The World Race wears you out, and I felt that every single day this past month. Most days were a struggle. Despite my inadequacy, and maybe even because of it, God amazingly led me to Pai and used me to play a part in His story for her life.

When I look back over the past year, it's incredible to think about everything that I've encountered and conquered. I won't lie; I get scared thinking about going home. I don't want to have to trade this in for a bigger challenge. The best thing is that I have this past year of stories of God's faithfulness to remind myself of.

An account of angels singing in Germany

Fri, 9 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

We have more encounters with the supernatural than many of us will admit. God and his agents are regularly intersecting with our lives in ways that validate his great personal concern for us. We just need to be more aware. We need to tune our spiritual radio antennae to pick up the activity all around us.

For example, angels. Have you ever encountered an angel? Justine Zins heard angels singing this week while in Germany.

Here is her account:

Yesterday, our two teams here in Berlin worshiped together in the "burn room". We all sat on the big, cozy rug in the middle of the big hall. Jordan started out sharing her heart for worship, and what God had put on her heart for our worship set during the event this upcoming weekend. Alana encouraged us to be still before the Lord, and listen for what we need to hear from Him, not what we want to hear. She began playing on her guitar and singing to Him. We all were standing, sitting, laying before Him communing with our Dad.

A song began to rise up out of me in that shadowed her voice. I was surprised because the melody and words were pouring out of me like they never have before. I sang over and over again. Then I quieted myself and just listened. Soon I began to hear this beautiful voice harmonizing to Alana's song. It was a woman's voice, and it was breathtaking harmony. I began looking around the room trying to find who was singing with her. Alana had just written the song, and I didn't know that anyone knew the words yet. My eyes didn't give up searching the mouths of the people in the room, but not one was singing, speaking, or praying aloud. I was baffled. I kept hearing it from the same corner of the room, but no one was there. I decided to just lay back and listen to the woman sing with Alana. It was so beautiful. It dawned on me then, it was an angel singing with her. I just laid there smiling, enjoying what I knew was God's beautiful gift that morning.

Later that night we practiced the songs a few of us wrote. Alana began playing a new song she had written that day. I immediately remembered that morning and began to tell her what I had heard while she was singing. To my surprise, Jamie jumped up screaming, "I heard them too! I heard them too!" She told us how she had heard a man's voice first, and then the woman joined him later, both accompanying Alana. She said it was the most beautiful harmony she had heard. She, too, stood up right away searching the room for the voices but couldn't find them, for there was no one in the part of the room she was hearing them from... the same corner.

We both were practically jumping up and down at this point. I am sure God loved watching all of this unfold and our childlike excitement as we delighted in His creation. We turned to Alana and asked if she had heard them too. She told us that she does hear them sing with her when her heart is in a place of worship, and not performance. She just laughed and explained that she didn't realize other people could hear them too!

The funny part is, when I thought back to the song that I kept singing - that just flowed right out, I remembered that I was singing, "the angels dance around us, and sing over us."

Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
Psalm 148:2

Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.
Psalm 103:20

...And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him."
Hebrews 1:6

How do I get out of here?

Thu, 8 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Maybe you made a mistake somewhere along the way. You compromised and started following an easy road, a broad road. And you know Jesus talked about a narrow road, but you're having a heck of a time finding it, much less walking on it. Where's the on-ramp?

There's a great gulf between deciding to quit and actually quitting. This can be good and bad. On the one hand, a great many more people attempt suicide than actually succeed in ending their life. On the other hand, you can find yourself stuck in a depressing rut and despair of ever getting out.

Let's say you've decided that you're going down the wrong track in life, how do you quit? Jesus' method of choice was cold turkey. Multiple times someone came to him ready to jump ship if they could just complete a little business beforehand, things like burying a loved one who had died.

Jesus response to those struggling with how to quit could be interpreted as harsh, "Sell everything you own," he said to the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-23). "Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead," he said to a man whose father had just died (Matt. 8:19-22). Did he just not care about the man's need to mourn his father? What's going on there? Perhaps Jesus' dramatic request was linked to his understanding that there's something in all of us that will find an excuse to put off a particularly hard choice. Leaving a place of comfort is rarely easy. But leaving is something that we need to do if we're ever to get to a place of freedom.

We have to leave the place where we've exchanged our freedom for a lifestyle of predetermined choices. We have to rediscover that place in life where freedom is a scary everyday reality. We need to go out from a place that feels comfortable, but may actually be a place of bondage. We have to say goodbye to what's become commonplace if we are ever to discover that narrow passage into the kingdom God and our identity in it.

If your current path is not enough for you - if you're actively struggling with this issue, then let Derek Webb's song minister to you today. There's a lot more in you than the world has seen. Let God help you give it away.

In praise of quitting

Wed, 7 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Have you considered the notion that maybe you should walk away? If people have made choices for you that you wouldn't make for yourself, maybe it's better to just quit.

Having said that, let's recognize a few things: No one likes a quitter and no one wants to be one; quitting is complicated - it comes loaded with a lot of consequences.

Another thing we need to see is that there is too much quitting in our lives. Quitting is the inevitable byproduct of living in a culture with too many options. Walk onto a car lot and you could find yourself talking all day with a salesman about options. Walk down the grocery store aisles and you may find yourself spending far too long reading how much fiber is in the various brands of granola.

Even better, if you make a mistake in what you choose, you can usually undo or replace your choice. When a dog chewed up my LL Bean briefcase, we mailed it off and they replaced it.

All the options make commitment itself optional. In a society where every website seems to have a shopping cart and filling them takes just a few clicks of your mouse, we teach our children to keep their options open. And in doing so, we inadvertently teach them some lessons about quitting.

Think of all the things we quit that used to be considered permanent but now find optional: our homes, our churches, our marriages and our jobs. Join any of a hundred club-like organizations available to you: Delta Skymiles Club, Costco, or Facebook, to name a few, and you'll find yourself reading the fine print at the bottom of the agreement you signed, wondering about the penalties for quitting.

But quitting can be a good thing too. What if you make a mistake - a really serious life-altering one? Like the choice as to how you see yourself and where you get your strokes from. When you sign up for a lifestyle that locks you into an identity that feels false, you may find yourself wondering how to get off the merry-go-round. When you feel trapped by having to live up to other people's concepts of who you are, quitting may be exactly the right thing to do.

Waking up and seeing yourself as a part of a crowd of lemmings moving toward a precipice is better than actually going over it. At some point, it makes sense to abandon your current course of action. And it's in that light that Jesus is calling many of us to walk away from the career track that others have mapped out for us. The price of going with the flow is just too high.

This is the only life we've been given - we need to figure out how to live it to the fullest. God has a purpose for our lives and we may not have fulfilled it yet. We may need to quit the safe path we're on to follow one that appears more dangerous and narrow.*

*"But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:14)

Discovering the purpose in the pain

Tue, 6 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Only recently has God revealed to me the purpose of the pain I went through in 1989. For years I attributed the betrayal to random misfortune, but more recently the Father spoke to me about that, helping me to see that it related to my dreams. Our conversation went something like this:

"I worked so hard to help get my friend's ministry off the ground. It shouldn't have been as complicated as it was. It wasn't fair."

"And you're hurt because of that."

"Well, yes."

"Don't you see how that incident was my tool in your life?"

"Yeah, yeah. 'All things work together for good.' It's one of those."

"Wait, were you happy where you were working before what you perceived as betrayal?"

"Not really."

"Exactly my point. That was me behind the pain you felt. It was an answer to your prayers."

"Is it me, or does that sound crazy? When did I ever ask you for that kind of pain?"

"You asked me to use you to change the world, right?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with the pain of betrayal?"

"Your dreams were too small. To help change the world, I needed to get rid of your small dreams to make room for the big dreams I wanted to give you. And you needed an internship before you could start AIM."

"What does that have to do with the pain I felt?"

"That pain was my tool, clearing out the underbrush of your small dreams in your heart to make room for my God-sized dreams."

"But why couldn't I have gotten rid of them myself?"

"Because you were clinging to them too tightly. Your dream of recognition and financial security took up too much room in your heart. It needed to be cleared out so that I could give you my dreams of raising up young people and caring for orphans."

"So my friend who betrayed my trust was actually your tool? I don't like it."

"You wanted to be able to cling to the hurt and the dream, but they couldn't coexist."

"Why is that?"

"Because of a lesson you're only now beginning to get your arms around after all these years later."

"Which is?"

"I can't trust you with my dreams until I can trust you with pain."

"That's a hard lesson, Lord. I guess I should say, thank you."

"You're welcome. There's a terrible beauty in all this; as long as you keep seeking more, you're going to find me answering your prayers."

Walking away from the pity party

Mon, 5 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

We all get hurt and we all get tired of dealing with the people who hurt us. And I'm guessing most of us have conversations with God like Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof." God may not answer us as obviously as a human would, but if we collapse time through journaling and reflection, we may more clearly see the reality of the conversation.

In my experience communing with the Almighty, he's much more interested in the essence of the thought than he is the exact clothes that that thought wears - the words.

Here is an example of a conversation I had with the Almighty years ago just before I started AIM. I was at a low ebb and ready to give up.

"Lord, I am so tired of trying to make a difference. I'm tired of this life of ministry. I'd really rather do something else that doesn't cost so much. What do you want from me? I'm tired."

"My son, don't grow weary in doing good."

"But people have hurt me. They've taken this gift that I've wanted to give and they've kicked it around like an old soccer ball. I'm tired."

"You sound like one of my original missionaries who had himself a pity party after I wouldn't follow his time frame and plan.

"Who is that?"

"Jonah."*

"Yeah, well this mission work is tough. Can I try out some other line of work like being a stockbroker or a travel agent?"

"Sure you can; I'm into freedom. Isn't that what missions work is all about? Not making people believe, but setting them free so they can believe...just like I've set you free now." 

* * * * * * * *

Talking to yourself can result in a pity party where you're the only one in attendance. It's no way to go through life. If you're tired of that stale conversation with the theme of you bemoaning circumstances you expected to be different, try talking to the Almighty. I suggest getting out your journal, writing down a question, and then writing his response. I'll share another example of what this looks like tomorrow.

*"This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. So he complained to the Lord about it: "Didn't I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord?" Jonah 4:1-2

Celebrating your dependence day

Sun, 4 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I shared these thoughts four years ago in this post and got no feedback. But I liked it and hey, it's my blog, so here it is again.

As we celebrate the 4^th of July, of course we're going to reflect on all that's good about America. We have a rich Christian heritage and we've fought tyranny around the world for the last century or so. It's great stuff worthy of all the fireworks displays.

But let's not confuse our heritage with what is often advertised as "the American Dream" - that good life in the suburbs with all the toys. Our independent ways can have a spiritual downside, and we're not unpatriotic to take note of it.

God wants a partnership with us where we are neither autonomous, nor are we independent contractors. We say it so much we lose the meaning: He wants to be Lord of our lives - that is, He wants to be involved in our decision-making. He wants us to depend on and consult with Him.

Some Christians misinterpret this and won't make a move unless God tells them to. A much larger group of believers fail to involve Him at all in their decision-making.

We are self-sufficient by nature; we have to be taught how to depend on and consult with our Lord. This is why the "American Dream" is so at odds with the life of God. The American Dream is about security and comfort. The two cars, the house, the nice job, the insurance policies, can all release us from the need to depend on God. None are wrong in and of themselves, they are just twigs in a nest.

Jesus told his disciples to pray for their daily bread. When you need God to this degree, it gives you the opportunity to see His goodness as He provides, which in turn enables you to trust Him.

I am one of many American Christians who struggle with this issue of trusting God (in the radical way that He wants to be trusted). Why? Because we don't really have to trust Him. And many of us don't fundamentally know if He is trustworthy.

Self-sufficiency is an insidious trap that can sideline us for life from God's Kingdom purposes. Which is why it is so important to practice the life of abandon as an exercise of our will before our nests become so comfortable that leaving them seems impossible.

Happy Independence Day everyone - may God grant you a measure of dependence on Him as well.

The tension between doing & being

Sat, 3 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Jesus said a lot of provocative stuff that makes it hard to follow him. Almost half of the book of John takes place in the last week of his life, a time when he was extremely focused. Everything he said laid the groundwork for his death. Read from chapter 12 on sometime and see if it doesn't challenge you. For those who want to make Jesus "seeker friendly," his words don't sound particularly inviting. For example, there's John 14:6, : "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me."

Seeker friendly that. Any way you slice it, Jesus doesn't water down his tough-as-nails gospel.

Among other things, Jesus told his disciples that they would be hated and persecuted. And he told them to remain in him, connected like a branch to a vine. In other words, we're to be in a very close relationship with him.

Because we in America are often so focused on getting things done, we can struggle with the balance between being in relationship and actually doing something. I often hear Christians talk about the importance of being rather than doing. We make much of the story of Mary and Martha where Jesus gives Martha a mild rebuke for being busy doing stuff while Mary hangs out.

But Jesus is all about maintaining the tension between doing and being as he prepares to go to his death. Listen to his words in chapters 14 and 15:

" Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these."

"If you love me, you will obey what I command."

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me."

"If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching."

"If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love."

"Go and bear fruit - fruit that will last."

If we feel a tension between doing and being, then Jesus seems to want us to live in it.