organic christianity

near

Oh my warrior, let's go pick a fight
Oh my lover, shall we dance all night
Oh my brother, let's go run a while
Oh my father, hold me like your only child
I wanna be near you

When you feel like the world is falling apart and your enemies are attacking you from all angles he fights for you like a heavenly champion.  When you feel ugly and unwanted he is a lover who intimately embraces you.  When you feel lost he's always there as a wonderful father.  I am learning every day to relax and let God be everything for me.  I sat alone today and allowed God to embrace me with his warm, tender arms.  Instead of picking up arms and going to war I rested in His presence and allowed Him to love on me.  I never felt more alive then when I felt him squeeze me tight.  Could all my answers be found in that place?  Could all my unrest, anger and wounds be healed in His presence?  Ask the Lord to hug you today.  It's cheesy but it works when you feel horrible. 

I want to be near You, Lord.

ratatouille

"Not anyone can be an artist but an artist can come from anywhere."  I heard this quote in the movie Ratatouille (a great rental).  The main character which was a rat was never accepted as the great chef he was until the end of the movie.  Everyone's first reaction when they saw him was to kill him, run him off or scream in terror.  But he was a culinary artist, gifted with mixing flavors.  I was reminded of the great lesson of the Bible that we cannot judge a book by its cover.  Artists, leaders, world changers can come from anywhere.  Often I believe God uses the awkward and unusual to be these people.  We want to always look towards those who are charismatic or good-looking.   My hopes and dreams to see multitudes saved through the gospel, communities experience revival and the church to become what it was meant to become seems so impossible through my flawed, inexperienced, arrogant little life.  But maybe there are great things in me waiting to come out.  Maybe there are deposits of God given gifts in all of us, that once discovered and are organized together can really see some of these dreams come true.  This movie reminded me to see people through God's eyes.  He always saw incredible things in the strangest people like prostitutes, tax-collectors and fishermen.  I hope some day I could be used like these people.  I don't want to be a prostitute, a hated person or a fishermen but I sure do want to posture my life in a way that God can use me like He did for them.  When you see a future business man in a homeless person, a loving mother in a prostitute and a youth minister in a drug dealer I think you touch the heart of God.  Lord, redefine my lens in which I judge and see success.      

facebook

Like normal it has taken me way to long to join a cool new fad.  I joined facebook a couple days ago and I am addicted.  I have added all the dumb little applications to personalize your page.  It is much better than myspace mainly because it doesn't have soft-core porn everywhere.  I recommend facebook for all the parents out there being hounded by their kids to join an online community. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

leverage

How many times have I heard from the pulpit, "you can change the world?" Probably not a bunch of times but those few times when a pastor is full of faith and he blurts out those words I get excited. I leave the building with one mission in mind; I will change the world. As you can see, I have failed at this mission because there is still so much wickedness, violence and pain in the world. I really don't believe that I can change the world but I do believe that we can change the world. In the past I wasn't exactly sure how to go about accomplishing this enormous vision. But over the last few months I have been exposed to this concept of social justice, which is trying to achieve major change in the world. Social justice is basically making right all the wrongs in every aspect of society whether dealing with human trafficking, gang violence or clean water. I am just in the beginning stages of understanding the major problems in the world and how to begin to tackle them. The church has been doing wonderful things to achieve social justice for many centuries but lately social justice has seemed to be far from the American church, at least the circles I have been involved with. There seems to be much more concern for the ABC's of church: attendance, buildings and cash. I know there are many Christians in the world who want to leverage their influence and power for those who don't have any. I hope I can become one of those. I am just a baby to this whole discussion and I am being rocked by the huge need for the church to help the world not only spiritually but through humanitarian effort.

For those of you who are interested please check out "The Revolution: a field manual for changing your world." It is a good start to understanding the major problems. Being educated and joining the worldwide discussion about these horrible issues is where it all begins. I am having our youth group go through this book so that they can learn now, what it took me into my mid-twenties to understand. There are parts of this book, which I am not sure that I fully agree with, but it is the best resource I have found so far to get a broad picture of the great needs of the world. Let's learn how to leverage whatever influence we have for those who don't have any.

drink coffee do good

Rwanda is known for some of the finest coffee beans in all the world and is also known for something much more tragic. If you saw Hotel Rwanda you would have seen an incredible depiction of what horrible event occured less than ten years ago where 1,000,000 people were killed in one of the worst genocides in history. The movie is almost forgotten but murder is still being committed. The country is trying to rebuild but there is still much more pain and sorrow in that nation. I met a company at the Catalyst conference in Alabama which is attempting to help this country in a unique way. Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee is helping coffee bean growers in Rwanda get top dollar for their product and is also using profits to offer loans to widows of murdered Rwandan men and for mothers who have adopted genocide orphans. Not only is the coffee great but they have a wonderful mission. Check out their website at www.drinkcoffeedogood.com.