check this out...I like their perspective!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k16QXGQHz6o

2004 Crime Statistics
CMPD District D-3
Homicide-11
Rape-21
Robbery-304
Aggravated Assault-467
Burglary-752
Larceny-1315
Auto Theft-465
Arson-14

We currently have a proposal in the works to invade our area further by opening a barracks/outpost.

It would give us space to hold corporate worship services and open a large sized community center.

You can see the crime stats for a three block radius of the building. It is the worst block in our city and it needs Jesus.

Please up the prayer, I will be doing an on site presentation tomorrow, so pray that God moves in the hearts of those who need to sign the paper.

The building is in rough condition, but with a lot of elbow grease it is going to shine for Jesus.

Your will be done Lord.

Philosophy

I have been using my personal study times lately to study the philosophical understandings of justice and faith, so I thought I would share some thoughts.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's
"Man was born free,and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they."
The Social Contract translated by Maurice Cranston

From Socrates ...
The unexamined life is not worth living and the unlived life is not worth examining

St Anselm ...
God cannot be conceived not to exist. God is that, than which nothing greater can be conceived. That which can be conceived not to exist is not God.

Saint Thomas Aquinas ...
whatever is done voluntarily must be traced back to some higher cause other than human reason and will, since these can change and fail; for all things that are changeable and capable of defect must be traced back to an immovable and self-necessary first principle ... GOD.

I wonder where and who are are post-modern Anselem's and Aquinas' are. Those who will be the great defenders of truth. Going to hear Plato speak would have been the equivalent to going to see a movie or catch the latest podcast.

What are the cultural equivalents to corporate reason that reveal Christ ?

How will we engage them to advance truth and justice ?

To be continued ...


Rob

Good day!
As long as you're here, you'll want to check out Jesse Green's blog from Feb. 12 (down on the right under The Team) which gives an eyewitness account of recent salvation that has come to pass in our community.
Praise the Lord.
God is here.


hd

A God-Inspired Reality Check

How far do I intend to go for His Will to be done on earth as it is in heaven?
As Far As It Takes?
How long shall I live as though He were coming back Soon?
Every Day Until I Die?
What am I willing to give up in the temporal to store up in the eternal?
All of it?

I will be responsive to the Holy Spirit's work and obedient to His leading in my life.
I will continue to grow in grace through worship, prayer, service and the reading of the Bible.
I will make the values of the Kingdom of God and not the values of the world the standard for my life.

I made covenant with You Lord 4 years ago. Am I living up to my end of the deal?

If not...

,
Disturb me, Lord,

when I am too well pleased with myself,

When my dreams have come true

Because I have dreamed too little

When I arrived safely

Because I sailed too close to the shore...
attributed - sir francis drake -1577

hd

Joy

What joy there is in serving our lord.


I spent an hour playing with little kids this morning; and I know there is no greater joy to the Lord's heart than to join in with them.



A couple of years back I attended Caribou Hill Corps in Canada and during a preaching series there were different stations set up in worship. There was hand washing, prayer requests, confession, the usual except for one, the play with Jesus station, at this station there were toys and balls and jump ropes. You were to grab a toy during worship and play, have some fun.

The play station was the most difficult station for people to engage in, not including Elaine G and Steve C who made fools of themselves for Jesus; they just ran around with weeeeeeeee's and yeaaaaaaaaa's. There was something there, a wall, that said "this is too silly for God." "After all he is a God of order. " I didn't get it, and I missed out; God likes to play in worship.



The thing is this. The world is not afraid of what other people think, just go to an NFL game or a bar on Saturday night, people are off the chain. Sure they may have liquor but hey we have Holy Spirit, eternal life, liberty.



Can you see it ... 5 guys in church tomorrow lifting up their shirts in the balcony to reveal their painted bellies displaying ... J . E . S . U . S or someone starting the wave, it could be like super-church.



I do not know ! It is outside the box but if anyone wants to take me up on it I'll be the E.

If this offends you, sorry, but go study Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Isaiah and find some of the crazy things God had them do in church.

Guess what everybody, I'm engaged!

So here's my (Heather's) reflection on S______a's situation. (Her name is not Santa, by the way, for all you wheel of fortune fans).
I drove her home last night and she spent the entire way telling me about her week. It was very intense, mostly because her life is intense.

There were times, even in the short drive, that I ceased to really pay attention. Couldn't tell ya what she said. Our lives have been incredibly different and I had no mental file for what I was hearing. So I just tuned out.

It'd been a long day. My 'pain place' (you know, the spot where the remnants of any awful things I'd seen, heard and experienced that day) was filled up and maxed out. I didn't have that reserve bottle of ministry gatorade to swig down so that I could be ready for what she was telling me was her life. So I unplugged. And I kept driving.

The closer I got to her place, the more tense and distressed she became. I started repeating over and over in my head, "Jesus, I don't want to leave her there. I just can't leave her there." and the apathy, masquerading as tiredness in me lost its fight and compassion rose up.

I made an active choice to engage my friend and to hear her. Respond to her. Pray for her. Reassure her. Remind her that we're only a phone call away. (Which, incidentally, she took me seriously on, because she called this morning at half past six...but seriously, I'm not complaining)

We arrived. Just before she shut the door she paused, and just looked in at me. I had 15 seconds to inject her with a shot of hope and light before she went into that awful house.
What words did I have?

"Please,"

I said,

"Before you decided to runaway (one of the options she is considering) please call me, and I'll come and get you. Just don't disappear. For real. Okay?"

She half-smiled and said "Okay." and then, "Heather, I love you." and then she was gone.

I watched as she entered that awful, infested, run-down house. Then, I lost it. A broken woman. I wept for her and her situation and the hardships that have been hers.

"It's not fair,"

I say to the Lord.

"Ahh...."

the Lord says to me,

"Heather, it would have been worse for her had you remained tuned out and closed off...she needs feel safe to talk and get all of this stuff out of the dark and into Light. And she needs to be heard. How can she rebuild a ruined life, or family, or even a people group, if firstly she can't even talk about it and secondly no one will listen?

See, I've got this theory, that sharing in the sufferings of Christ (like we read about in Philippians 1:29) isn't just about the physical hurts that come with persecution (i.e shootings, stabbings, being drawn and quartered, crucified) but that it is our privelege as His followers, to suffer by having our hearts broken for humanity like His does, and to bear the burdens of our brothers and sisters and cry out in prayer on their behalf like He does...

I believe that the more we choose to open up that secret place where we hold our tenderest selves and our most affected emotions and truly engage the 'others' whom The Lord of Hosts has intentionally ushered into our lives, than the more we will see the revolution we're craving - the Kingdom transformation from brokenness to healing. Raw devastation to sacred restoration. Utter abandonment into divine adoption. The Rebuilding. Restoring. Renewing.

When I'm engaged, it can hurt like a sonnofoagun but it's the gift of coming to know and share in His sufferings, and in doing so, begin to more closely resemble the Lord Jesus Christ.

And isn't that the point?

Thursday Morning

We got an early morning call today, I must admit that I faked sleep so that Heather would get it. I knew who it was just by the conversation, it was our friend S-------a. She is 16 and one of the brightest kids I have ever met. I love her and one of my dreams is to be at her High School and College Graduation.

S------a's falls into the most common category of homelessness; that is youth who have no permanent home. She floats from couch to floor to friends to hotel ... etc. Her most current bedroom is a sofa at an Aunts that she gets from 11pm until 5am, she has to be off by 5 because a man who pays some rent gets it then.

Her Mother is addicted to crack, alcohol and trafficking. The social dimensions of her life would be unthinkable if you were not born into oppression, but for her not eating for two days and being told that you are going to grow up to be a prostitute are constant.

This morning that guy who uses the couch after her was drunk and angry and struck her. She called this morning before 7am to tell us that she is never going back there (a.k.a home) again. I am so broken over this, mainly because she is only one out of thousands just in my city alone, but I am so blessed to share my life with her. She knows Jesus and loves his people, she longs to serve them in his name, and by her life poured out in worship right the wrongs in this world that she knows all too well. She belongs to Jesus and that is my only source of strength when I look her in the eyes tonight and say " you are going to be o.k."

'll leave out the details of my legal obligations, but this I know ...

2 Corinthians 4:7-11

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. Amen.

Now I have to go explain this to a kid, and help her find a home on earth.

Rob

Treat of the Week

Today was a great day. I mean, usually Saturdays are eventful (12.20.06 and 11.26.06 for example) but today was just plain enjoyable.
My Saturday cell group has looked a bit different since we came back from the holidays, mostly because I got home from vacation and realized that a whole bunch of families had moved away in a 2 week period.
Okay, maybe not a whole bunch - just 2 - but it feels like a whole bunch, because that's 2 families = 7 kids.
So instead of 8 or 9 shining faces around my table, I was down to 5 last week and then this week there was just 1.
So instead of trying to make a big lunch at my house, plan an activity and have group prayer time, like we normally would, we broke tradition andchopped in the van and had cell group at McDonalds...and it worked out great! (Shocker - who knew McD's was popular with kids haha)

She was free to chat my ear off about whatever she liked because she didn't have to compete with any other little voices and she had my whole attention and a happy meal.

That's all. Nothing 'profound' to report...just a deeping of relationship - my personal 'treat of the week' (!)

posted by:
HD

Phillipians 1:27 the Message

there's far more to this life than trusting Christ, there's also suffering for Him, and the suffering is as much of a gift as the trusting.

What is suffering for Christ? I've always assumed that it is a physical suffering, as in, being nailed, stoned, exiled, pulled apart by horses and son on, but I wonder, could it be something more?

Sharing in the sufferings of Christ. What were His sufferings? Sure, He suffered on the cross - no argument there, but what if we're meant to share in the sufferings of His heart?

He suffered every time His people (Israel) didn't understand Him or His teachings. He suffered every time they overlooked their God, their Maker, for some flashy idol or hot new pagan sacrificial act.
He suffered every time their faith fell short, even in those who had seen Him do miracles first hand.
He suffered when there was a lack of love for mankind, even among His disciples - those who were partaking of 24-7 mentoring from the Big Guy, Himself.

What if it's additionally about a suffering of the heart? Bearing His burden of intercession for the people?

So when others are hurting, we'd hurt just like He hurts.
When others are dying, forgotten, abandoned, we'd hurt just like He hurts.
When others are accused or accusing, injust and oppressed, we'd hurt just like He hurts.

Maybe that's the whole point of all of this. This love. This Christlike love. Sacrificial love. Put your needs before mine love. Bear your burden even when it's really heavy and it brings me down love.

"38But Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism [of affliction] with which I am baptized?
39And they replied to Him, We are able. And Jesus told them, The cup that I drink you will drink, and you will be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized..." Mark 10:38-39 Amplified Bible