World Vision Wednesday

Kenya and the Horn of Africa are experiencing a famine causing drought. World Vision has escalated its response to the crisis. For more information, and to find out how you can help, see this.

Weekend Wanderings

It's that time of year again. Summer vacation is drawing to a close, and the beginning of another school year looms. This past week, the teachers in our district went back to school for in-service training and to prepare for the students' first day on Monday. I don't know if everything is ready, but the students will be there tomorrow regardless. It's been a little cooler here in the sunny South, and we are grateful. Hopefully the trend will continue, although it has been known to get hot around here in September. We'll see.

Here are the links:

Speaking of complacency...

The M Blog on kingdom giving.

Arthur Sido on opportunities to serve.

Self storage Jesus.

Jon Acuff on joy props.

My Jesus versus your Jesus.

Good quotes.

Pam Hogeweide writes about being a food lady.

Why true believers need skeptics.

Going not going.

Two churches that closed down the show.

God's hands.

The Celtic Christians believed in "thin places," places where the veil between heaven and earth was thinner than usual. These spots were good places to experience the presence of God and hear from him. I have never been to a place that could be described that way, until today.

This evening while driving the Camp Canaan shuttle to Charlotte, I experienced something I never have before. We were traveling through Ft. Mill and it was raining. The sun was shining behind us and I looked up and saw the most perfect rainbow I have ever seen. It was bright and all the color bands were uniform. As we went down the road, it looked as if the rainbow was forming an perfectly centered arch over the road. The rainbow faded out as the sun went behind some clouds. When it came back it was joined by another rainbow, above the first and not as bright. The bows then faded again.

The sun reappeared, and the first rainbow was back again, but this time it looked like it was right in front of us. As I looked to the right and to the left, I could see where the rainbow began and ended. No, I didn't see a pot of gold. As I looked at the rainbow reaching to the ground, I thought of heaven touching earth, and I was immediately overwhelmed with a sense of the presence of my heavenly Father, and of his love and care for me. I was filled with a peace such as I have not often experienced. That sense of God's love and of peace has stayed with me throughout the evening.

I believe I was in one of those thin places. I always thought I'd have to travel to some far away location to find one, if they existed. Here was one in Ft. Mill, SC of all places. It just goes to show you what Abba can do, when you least expect it. I don't plan on going searching for thin places every time I see a rainbow, but my prayer is that God would make my life a thin place, where heaven touches earth.

Problems and Opportunities

The stock market is on a roller coaster ride. Some economists say the United States is headed for another recession. European nations are in crisis. The U.S. credit rating has been downgraded. Unemployment continues to be a major problem.

Some say the United States is being punished for "turning away from God." Others say that this is a sure sign of the end. These things may be true or they may not. I wonder if maybe God is finished with this country as far as blessing it and using it to bless the world. Many see these things as serious problems, and there are some who are even reacting in the same manner as those who put their trust in material things rather than God.

I do believe we may be in for some rough times in this country. What that will mean is left up to far wiser folks than me to figure out. What I do know is that the coming bad times, if they come, will present those who claim to follow Jesus the opportunity to put their money (or their houses, cars, or other possessions) where their mouth is.

One of the primary things said about about the early church was that there were no poor persons among them. If you remember, this was at a time when there were a whole lot of poor people around the Empire. The followers of Jesus, because they were devoted to Jesus Christ and to each other, were willing to go so far as selling their possessions in order to help those who were in need. How far are we willing to go?

Are we willing to sell something to give to a fellow Christian who has lost employment? Are we willing to change our routine and patronize a business on order to help a brother or sister in Christ? Are we willing to provide living space for someone who has lost their home? Are we willing to share possessions (clothes, yard tools, cooking utensils, etc.) in order to ease someone's burden? In short, are we willing to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters?

A friend said to me that she believed God was telling her that the time was short. While this could refer to the end times, I think that maybe it's our time as prosperous "American Christians" that is short. I believe that it may not be very long before those of us who claim to follow Jesus will have to put up or shut up.

God help us to be found faithful.

Question

I have a question for you readers out there. Many of you are bloggers, and have opinions on matters of faith. I would appreciate it if you would answer this question for me. You can answer in the comments or if you have a longer answer, you can write a blog post. Thank you.

The question is:

What is community?

Weekend Wanderings

The summer vacation is winding down. Next week, the teachers in our district head back for in-service, and the students come back the following Monday. Looking back, it seems like the summer has flown by, although it didn't seem like it at the time. It's been a good break, and in one sense I'm sad to see it end. On the other hand, I'm looking forward to some schedule changes that will make some parts of my life better.

Enough about the summer. Here are the links:

Interesting study on changes in the church.

How you do anything.

Being Christ-centered (HT: Arthur Sido).

Saturday church?

Jeff Dunn walks the broken road.

The perfect romantic comedy.

Lessons from Gomer and Goober.

This is pretty cool.

Arthur Sido on "nuclear war ethics."

Alan Knox has a series on a healthy diet for the church. Part 1 is here.

Angels unaware.

Good article on the Amish response to tragedy (HT: Scot McKnight).

What about coffee?

When God goes quiet.

Persistence pays off.

Toward a community hermeneutic.

I'm not so sure about this.

Seasons of uncertainty.

Ronnie McBrayer says that hope is a verb.

The church on the margins.

Have a wonderful week.

Soup and Relationships

I know. You're wondering what in the world soup has to do with relationships. I'm glad you asked. For in-service training at the middle school where I work, we are reading Soup by Jon Gordon. It is a book about a company that makes soup and the lessons that the new CEO learns on her way to turning the company around. While reading this book, I was once again struck by the idea that all truth is God's truth, and that we can learn from unexpected sources.

At one point in the story, one of the characters makes this statement: "Communication, trust, and love create the foundation for any successful relationship. Without communication, trust, and love, your relationship won't be very strong; and without strong relationships you can't have a strong team; and if you don't have a strong team, then you can't have a strong organization. Relationships are the foundation upon which winning teams and organizations are built." While this statement does work for businesses, I believe it is just as true for those of us who follow Jesus.

Our faith is a faith built on relationship. We belong to a God who is a relational Being. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in a perfect love relationship with each other. I think you could say they have communication, trust, and love. We are also called into relationship with God. He has adopted us into his family, and calls us to accept his love and love him in return. God is someone who we can trust, and he communicates with us. Belonging to God is not a matter of saying or doing the right things. It is a matter of accepting and living in the love the Father has lavished on us.

Our relationships with others must be built on communication, trust, and love. Many of the problems in marriages, family relationships, and churches could be solved if we communicated with each other, if we trusted others enough to feel safe enough to communicate and were worthy of that trust, and if we loved enough to work through any problems that come from communication, or miscommunication. The primary command that Jesus gave us is to love each other as he loves us. We are to lay down our lives for our friends. How many times is our lack of communication, trust, and love due to our unwillingness to lay down our preferences, our "rights," our comfort. We don't put forth the effort to build relationships with fellow believers, and therefore our lives and churches are smaller and have less joy than what is possible.

Communication, trust, and love take work. It can be messy, and sometimes we can get hurt. But just as building relationships was the foundation on which the revival of the soup company was based, so relationships are the foundation on which God's kingdom is built. After all, Jesus did say that our love for each other would be the way the world would know that we belonged to him.