Prayer warriors, time to pull out the stops!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/01/justice.souter.retiring/index.html

Supreme Court Justice David Souter is stepping down in June....amazing opportunity for Obama to choose the RIGHT person! I don't see him choosing an extreme left kinda person...please don't choose an extreme ANYTHING...and I love his stance on compassion, as long as it's tempered with keeping the individual accountable. I read a disturbing article about Judge David Hamilton, Obama's first judicial appointment to the appeals court called 'What's the matter with empathy?' (Wendy Long with NRO). Hamilton, formerly chief judge of the district court in Indianapolis, has run roughshod over rational compassion and has practiced what Long calls 'lawless empathy' in some of the cases he ruled in. The Washington Post says 'The White House held out Hamilton as a prototype for the nominees Obama will seek as he reshapes the federal appeals courts' so my project today is to research this guy - I don't want to base my opinion on one article, as compelling and persuasive as it is. I love Obama - I've supported him throughout his candidacy and agree with much of his platform (abortion is my primary bone of contention) and want to believe he'll make the right decision, WITH God's help!

"Thank you for my life"

"Dear God
Whose Name I do not know
Thank you for my life
I forgot how big....
Thank you
Thank you for my life"

I've thought about this clip a million times since I saw it many years ago. It comes to mind when I feel that same spontaneous urge to lift my arms to praise God and to thank Him for whatever....for my life, my family, for beauty. It's the same feeling I've felt all my life, before I knew Who it was I was thanking. I never want to forget how big He is.

The Church...Think Globally, Act Locally

Today's headline on the NPR website: 'Experts Fear Financial Crisis Will Hurt World's Poor'. Doy Ralph. It doesn't take an expert to tell you that when money is tight, the ones who are already needy suffer most. Countries are tightening their belts even tighter and not providing aid as they did in years past. The poor have already been reeling from budget cuts and canceled programs and now the repercussions of this global economic downturn will most certainly strike fear in the hearts of struggling families everywhere.

I totally recognize there is a difference between American poverty and worldwide poverty. I grew up below the poverty line but I still had food and clothes. I can't imagine not having anything to feed my children. Or being sick and not having access to healthcare. Completely beyond the scope of my imagination. We are beyond blessed in this country, yet have a sense of entitlement that disgusts the rest of the world. Nevertheless, I have a heart for the people in my community and how they will be affected.

Springfield/Eugene is a region known for stellar programs for the needy, programs that will inevitably feel the sting of lack of cash flow in the coming months and years. What an amazing opporunity for the local church to show their stuff! Christians are called to feed and clothe the 'least of our brothers' and I believe they'll be coming in droves to their local churches, looking for help in these troubled times. And not only help for their earthly needs but for their spiritual needs as well.

So many inspiring verses about God's heart for the poor:

Psalm 82:3
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

Psalm 140:12
I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.

Job 29:11, 12
Whoever heard me spoke well of me and those who saw me commended me, because I rescued the poor who cried for help and the fatherless who had none to assist him.

Proverbs 22:9
A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.

Proverbs 28:27
He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.

Proverbs 31:20
She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy [a wife of noble character]

And one of my personal favorites...

Isaiah 58:6-8

6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard."

God, help us be ready!

Lessons in Faithfulness

I've been musing over the fact that I love Steve and Joyce Miller, the pastors of our new church, New Song. It's just that I haven't felt this way in a long time about my pastors, since Monroe, and that's been over 10 years. I really don't know them well yet but in this short time, I'm feeling like "till death do us part!!". They are so stuck with me, they have no clue...so that's why this teaching is so timely.

For the first time, Don and I will be a part of some specific, consistent, unweirdly (word? I dunno, check Urban Dictionary) teaching about WORSHIP. We've listened to countless sermons about worship, we've been on worship teams for many, many years, and have received practical training under the ministries we've been involved with, but this is something different. Our first discussion is entitled 'Being a Gift' and is about our role as it relates to leadership...for better or for worse!

Proverbs 25:19 - "Confidence in an unfaithful man (or woman) in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint."

Interesting that the analogy chosen are teeth and feet, appendages needed to eat and get around - to survive basically, at least back then. So you have other teeth and you have another foot, but it doesn't say 'is like missing a tooth' or 'is like only having one foot', it says 'is like having a BAD tooth' and 'is like having a foot OUT OF JOINT', which affects your whole bod, ie. the whole body of Christ.

Steve and Joyce Miller are the coolest people. The whole history of this church is amazing and peppered with their sacrifice and perseverence. You can hear Pastor Steve's compassion for his sheep in his sermons and see it when he gets choked up...the heart of a pastor, through and through. The intensity for pursuing the heart of Jesus is written all over his face. What you see is what you get..completely authentic and open people, generous with their time, energy and yummy food.


I've been reading this teaching this morning and am resolved that our family will be a gift to the Millers that:
...brings refreshing
...encourages
...pushes them onward
...doesn't murmur/complain
...is ready, in season and out

It's scary to be fully given to a ministry - we've been burned in the past and we have deeply hurt people ourselves. We know God led us here and won't let fear drive us - He's got a future and a hope and I couldn't be more excited about what He has planned!!

Tragic Forgetfulness

"By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
~ 1 Peter 1:3-8

Forgetting one is forgiven seems like a strange thing in a way...it's like the foundation of Christian belief, the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sins. But it's way more personal that that. Forgetting I have been cleansed from my old sins....some days that is pretty easy to do, especially when those old sins don't seem very old. So what happens if I 'forget'? Are my sins still forgiven? Of course! My lack of brain function or inconvenient guilty conscience doesn't affect God's grace in any way. But it does affect my growth. And my growth affects the people I will inspire to get to know Jesus and follow Him. Pretty tragic, really...the person who walks around, haunted by their past, is not only robbing themselves but everyone around them. God, help me not forget!!!

"Party line voting in my opinion is unbiblical. It says you don't think" ~ Richard Cizik, National Association of Evangelicals

I listened to an interesting interview on NPR over the weekend with Richard Cizik, vice president of governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals....http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95142910....which got me googling the guy because I loved his honesty. Turns out he has ticked off several high-profile conservative Christian leaders like James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Paul Weyrich and Gary Bauer, mostly because of his environmentalism (Creation Care) focusing on his stance on global warming. This NPR interview and other articles I've read recently, like the one in the Colorado Independent titled "Evangelical leader smacks McCain for lack of ‘principle’" proves he's not out to please the right....and I think that's what I liked about him. He's an independent thinker, not afraid to stand up for what he believes in, regardless of what mainstream Republicans or Christians say. This essay on torture that Richard Cizik wrote in the Washington Monthly...http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2008/0801.cizik.html...reminded me of my frustration with the current administration. Abortion, no - torture, yes? There is no greater irony in deeply held beliefs than that.

Now, I'd love to tell you he's voting for Obama/Biden this year, but he is, as of the date of this interview, in the 'undecided' category. But I love that he is open-minded and willing to speak out against the pressure Christians feel to vote Republican. Here's an excerpt:

...No party has a monopoly on GOD...I'm a conservative, but it doesn't mean I'm going to vote that way. I may disagree with Obama, and do, on same sex marriage and abortion, but that doesn't mean I'll vote against him...i think there are character and integrity issues that are even more important [than specific issues]. I would ask my fellow evangelicals 'what kind of temperment do you want?'...Barak Obama is a healer - he's looking to build common ground, even with his opponents...as we can find common ground, let's do it - that's Obama's forte!

Ahhhh...thank you, Mr. Cizik....like a Coke slurpee on a hot day, totally refreshing...

Sing a New Song

Who are all these happy people? I have no idea, but this church is really great. We've been going for a few weeks and LOVE it.