PRO LIFE AND PRO WAR? MAKE UP YOUR MIND!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007 Share: |

This was a bumper sticker I saw last week.
Very convicting.

Made me think we need to reevaluate some of our views on issues, parties and politics.

At the very least, this bumper sticker reveals where pro life advocates have had blinders when it comes to other issues...due to ignorance or loyalty...or both.

There is a tension here that we cannot run from.
I'd like to hear what you think about this bumper sticker.

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Anonymous wrote: I think it's long past time for Christ's modern-day followers to sit down and take a good long look at what He's got to say about quite a few things: war and peace, life and death, free will, the place (or lack of place) of religion in politics and vice versa... Besides the fact that we don't know what we should or even do believe, we're definitely not making the impression Christ calls us to on the world around us. And in neither case is that a godly situation to be in.; 10:37 AM
J wrote: Your philosophy of life shouldn't fit on a bumper sticker.; 10:59 AM
Casey wrote: Thanks Laura...good thoughts.

Amen to pshaw...but I don't think the bumper sticker is proposing a philosophy of life...just a snapshot of a much larger political/spiritual album if you will.; 1:33 PM

Barrier Breaking

Monday, October 15, 2007 Share: |

We had a unique and transformative Bible class this past Sunday morning. Our college group combined with another group called the Freedom from Bondage class...deals with addictions. I was proud of our student servants who prepared breakfast for us all...thanks again y'all! We all sat and ate together and then the leaders of the class shared letters and experiences from their prison ministry...the most powerful comments were about prisoners who had come to Christ talking about how free they were because of Jesus, even in prison. Wow! The power of prayer was emphasized. One comment was, "Don't tell God how big your problems are...tell your problems how big your God is."
It was special being a part of some barrier breaking...like Peter and Cornelius. I love that story in Acts 10 because we tend to learn that Cornelius needed Peter. What we often fail to see was that Peter needed Cornelius as well. Peter learned much from this God-fearing Gentile. We have much to learn from a group of people learning to break free from the bondage of addictions.

God thank you for bringing us together. Continue to tear down the walls!
For the kingdom!

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Luke wrote: At Eric's suggestion, I met with some of the Freedom guys last night to film their testimonies from the prison ministry. Hope to have the video available in a few weeks. They are really on fire for the Lord.; 11:12 PM

The Kingdom is NOT the Church

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Share: |

For many years now (most of the 20th century), the Churches of Christ have been teaching that the kingdom is the church--that they are one in the same. Yet it seems to me that the way Jesus talks about the kingdom does not fit with how Paul and Luke and others talk about the church.

The kingdom appears to be the mysterious work and will of God at work in the world. The church appears to be the people who want to be vessels of God's will in the world--we are the vessels through which the kingdom can come and reign.

The kingdom comes, when God's will is done.
The kingdom is present, but not fully present. It is growing.
The kingdom is already here, but it is not yet fully here.
The church is part of the kingdom, but it is not THE kingdom.

But I want to hear from you on this. What do you think? What have you heard and been taught? What Scriptures could we shine on this subject?

Share your thoughts for the sake of truth...in love.
Peace.

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The Gospel in the Mud

Monday, October 08, 2007 Share: |

Lendy and I were talking recently about a messy ministry situation. We talked about the ideal of the gospel as we read in Scripture but how muddy the gospel gets in real life situations. I somehow came up with the phrase, "The Gospel in the Mud."

Not long after this revelation (ha!), we went to the Nashville Inner City to serve the poor, encourage the servants in this non-glamorous ministry and be the love of Christ to all we encountered. We got to live, experience and learn what it means to carry the gospel into the mud--poverty, abuse, crime, brokenness, you name it! Of course, we have plenty of mud in our own lives but we are masters at covering it up. We obviously have something to learn from these muddy souls.

I've asked those who went to share a favorite memory from the trip. I hope somebody will tell the McDonald's domestic dispute story or the singing-on-the-bus-to-worship story. But there are many others...other stories and memories I never saw.
Please share...for your sake and the world's!

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Anonymous wrote: A light in a dark world. The emptyness felt when we leave a place such as the inner city of Nashville knowing that so much more could be done and wishing we had a lot more time. God opened up at least 18 hearts even more after that weekend than they were before they left.

Many memories from door-knocking, food and clothing distribution, the church service and a blessed bus ride on the way to church were taken away from that weekend. For myself, it was the countless conversation with the fellow "missionaries" from that weekend. Sitting on a cooler in the back of the bus because there was no where else to sit and diving into the deep feelings and thoughts we were having, some for the first time, inspires us to become better people and truly strive to live Jesus in our lives daily. Being unafraid to show that to others and stepping out of our comfort zone to bring Jesus to people who are desperately in search of Him.

Nothing can take away the experience that was there and hopefully a seed was planted from that weekend that is starting to grow in the hearts of those we encountered. We were blessed by hearing their stories, they were blessed by us stepping into their lives, even if for a few minutes.

God askes us now....."are you going to stop there?"

John McCammon; 10:57 AM
Anonymous wrote: Where to begin....I have been blessed over and over from this trip...there is no time nor enough space to give you all that has blessed me from Nashville. So I will share with you just a couple of snippets. First, teaching Bible lessons on the corner of inner city Nashville was never ever a thought in my head. Those children knew the Bible or at least the stories. They all wanted to read and to just be close to you. They were awesome. Next, after worship riding the bus back when a 7 year-old looks at my Bible in my lap and says "Read that to me." WOW...if only we could get everyone to say that. After reading a couple of verses, she wrote out on a piece of paper "I love Jesus." and signed her name. Lastly, I was humbled by the worship of these people... they truely left it all at the alter, even though they had very little to give materially, they gave their hands, their feet, their voices to God. We give materially and think that is enough but forget to give ourselves to God.

Watching the people work and serve in that community blessed me more than words can describe. I am grateful for the opportunity to live this experience. God please let me never forget what I learned or saw....and to definetely not 'stop here'.; 11:13 AM
Anonymous wrote: This is probably not my "favorite" memory, but rather one that will stay with me as a situation in which I should have (and could have!) done more.

I was with my group, doing the "door-knocking," and we went to the second story of one of the buildings and knocked on a door. Whoever it was had Vietnam-flavored stickers ("Vietnam Veteran," "Purple Heart Supporter," etc.). Took him awhile to get to the door, and when he answered, I saw he was in a wheelchair and had only one leg. We went through our little spiel about Inner City Ministry and invited him to "worship with us" the next morning, but he was very uninterested, shook his head and said "no" more than once. We gave him a flier anyway, smiled...and left.

It wasn't until later, sitting on the bus, that I realized: He lived on the second floor. There was no wheelchair ramp, at least not that I saw. 1) How did he get up there to begin with? Humiliating. And 2) How does he get down, if ever? He probably never gets farther than the concrete floor outside his apartment. Looking behind him, I could see it was small and dark, and it didn't smell very good.

This man had fought for our country and was now basically powerless, at least in the world's eyes. He probably never gets out, and if he does, it's not a pleasant process. We could have brought him food, we could have asked him if he needed anything, and most ouch-inducing, we could have and should have prayed for him. We didn't always ask people if they wanted us to pray for them, and we didn't ask this guy. Even if he'd said no...

Sorry to break up the kinda inspirational mood here, but...the work is far from finished, as your comments have already mentioned.

I am very glad I went on this trip and saw the things I saw and heard the things I heard. I hope I don't forget it, and that I will always be a generous Christian before I am a Republican or Democrat, or even an American.; 12:23 PM
Anonymous wrote: "we have plenty of mud in our own lives but we are masters at covering it up." Amen brother!

Each of us have that debt we read of from Luke 7:36-50 in our Sunday morning class. My prayer is that we consider our debt to God, and we live as servants to Him exposing Jesus to everyone we meet.

"It wasn't until later, sitting on the bus...". I know exactly what you mean. I want to be able to look past the expectations of or already mentioned rejected replies that a person gives when I talk to them about God. We all have a debt, and we need not to consider who has the debt of 50 and who has the debt of 500. Jesus died for us all. Let's strive for humility and being a slave to our master, almighty God.

matthew kooshad; 12:44 PM
Anonymous wrote: For me, the moment that impacted me the most on the trip was after church on sunday afternoon.

We were riding with Stacy and all the children we brought to church with us from the neighborhood back on the bus. Once we got on the road, Stacy asked us to lead in some singing.

Our worship songs started off kind of mellow, but eventually, they grew until everyone on the bus was singing, and clapping, and grinning from ear to ear. And when we started to drop the kids off in the neighborhood, their tune didn't change. They kept on singing and shouting with joy, not caring who of their friends or family saw them.

I realized that when we strip away all the attractiveness and glamour of worship, we really get down to the heart of it. And that is when we start to feel God's presense and begin to change.

I remember looking around at the kids on the bus, and thinking, "These kids have very little. Yet they are singing their lungs out and praising God for everything they have."

This was real humbling, because I know I am guilty of this, but sometimes we take for granted everything we have, everything that we have been blessed with.

It could be due to the fact that I love kids, and I love seeing them praise God, but this was definately the most impacting moment for me from the trip.

I'd like to see a Prayer and Praise session when we have worship like this. Like those kids, not caring who sees them, just praising God with everything they had.

-Nick Broadway; 2:15 PM
Anonymous wrote: These are some powerful memories. Thanks everyone for sharing.; 10:44 PM
Anonymous wrote: I am always blessed to see the growth in the students who have accepted the challenge to go to Nashville. Surely we do plant seeds in the inner city, but I some how think that just as many kingdom seeds are planted when we get out of our clean white society and wash the feet of the unlovable and some of them have six inch toenails!!

So, my fondest memory is the discussion on the back of the bus with two graduate students as they began to process what they had seen in under 3 hours in the inner city.

We should pay the Inner City Church of Christ for firing up the buses and taking us in there. I only hope that we will seek the ministry and the power of the Spirit to do it; as well as the proding of the community, both in this ministry and the Inner City Church to keep the inner city mission alive. It is easy to let it go and drift back into social and economic comfort.
LB; 5:03 PM
Unknown wrote: It was my first time observing how God worked through my life and their lives. There is no comfort in serving people, explaining to those who want to hear and enlightening those who want to know.

But, I deeply feel it was the trip that touches my life. There is no such relationship anywhere in the world that is so closely connecting people who have the same love for God. We all come from different places in the world, yet I feel safe to be here with you, no matter the trip to inner city Nashville or any other places in the future.; 10:20 PM

What do you think about Jesus and the Church?

Friday, October 05, 2007 Share: |

Just wanted to point you to a few links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2I8PZsgUG0

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucianvenutian/

We did an amazing outreach event on campus a few weeks ago. Transformative for those who participated.
We simply asked students at Ole Miss what they thought about Jesus and the Church.
We got some great answers, convicting answers, predictable answers, hard-to-hear answers, etc.
The thing I appreciated the most was the honesty...we wanted honesty and we got it!
I hope you'll notice some trends and discover some implications from this event.
Even though we got great answers, we are left with more questions, longing to know these souls that are searching for God...longing to see them again so we can keep talking and listening.
God, give us opportunity and then give us courage.

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Which soil are you?

Wednesday, October 03, 2007 Share: |

Wow! What a powerful proclamation of the gospel tonight by Lendy. When I think about all the things he talked about--how he pointed out the ministry of failure that we are involved in (by the world's standard) and how few there truly are that are the good soil, it is a sobering parable that Jesus gives us in Mark 4.

Which soil am I?
Which soil are you?

Of course, we all want to believe that we are the good soil--yet we must decide if we let Satan take the seed away, if we run away when trouble comes, or if we get choked out by worldly pressure, money, pleasure, etc. We can't all be the good soil...even well intentioned Christians can't all be good soil. Only disciples who are willing to see how Jesus died and say, "Surely this man was the Son of God."

There are some among our campus ministry that are good soil...I can't wait to see God produce 30,60 or 100 times what was sown in their hearts!

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Anonymous wrote: Lendy was extra animated tonight, I could tell he was excited to be preaching (even if it was a "downer" at first, in his words).

I like what he said, "There's one thing you need to understand about the kingdom. It's GOD'S. It's God's kingdom. We have NO IDEA what God can do with..." etc.

And the fact that God has revealed the secret of His kingdom to us is even more amazing. But it's kind of hard to believe/feel sometimes, when I don't feel that close to God. It's like, has He really revealed anything to me? Am I really partaking in some big Secret? (And I guess, in those cases when I'm not in right fellowship with God, the answer to that second question might be no! Ouch!)

Good lesson. May we all be listening and watching for the Kingdom.

--katie; 11:10 PM

Resurrected Blog

Tuesday, October 02, 2007 Share: |

How long O Lord? How long O students? I just realized that my last post came about a week before Tracey went into the hospital (April 2006). Obviously, a lot has happened since then...much joy and much grief. Blogs come and go...mine has mostly come and gone. But this is a season for a new anointing...it is time to resurrect the blog. It has been in the silence of the grave long enough...death has had its victory. Now...where O death is your victory, where is your sting?
My voice has returned...may it honor my Lord.

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astraughnomer wrote: Casey, yay! I saw your news feed on Facebook, and i'm the first to comment. :)

How are you guys doing?! Miles is sooo cute. I sure wish we could see you guys more often. I look forward to reading your blog now that it's enjoying life again. :); 10:38 PM
J wrote: Glad the blog is back. If you think "Sex God" is worth recommending, pass it my way.; 10:44 AM
Casey wrote: Amber,
Glad you found me. Tracey's a big help keeping me technologically cool...if that's even possible! :)
We are doing well...going to AR next weekend for our birthdays. Need to update my facebook pic.
Y'all won't be in AR at Thanksgiving will you?

Church,
Haven't read it yet, but am hearing good things from Lendy and Eric.; 9:18 PM