The Saffron Army

If you have been following the situation in BURMA, you will note that a revolution has begun. Under some of the worlds toughest regime machines justice has been twisted for years. One of Burma's leaders, Sue Chin Ye, has been the recipient of a Nobel peace prize yet has never been allowed to leave the country to receive it. Burma, or Myanmar as the fascists call it, has abundant natural resources yet your average "JOE" lives in miserable poverty. The thing that looks different about this revolution is that it is being led by " Buddha's Saffron Army," yep the monks and nuns of the nation. I believe that the Jesus Church should take notice. Seriously, when the Buddhist Monks rise up and take to the streets for justice we should really ask ourselves what we have done lately. The protests are all non-violent and peaceable, however the people of the nation could not help but rise up and follow when they saw those with great moral authority leading the way. Imagine a mobilized Church leading the way; with our very lives there would be no option but to follow! We constantly sing and say that we want a revolution, an uprising, but how long O'LORD till our prayers meet our muscle ? Am I sugesting that the Church actually take to the streets and march ? Yes, Yes, Yes I am. There are 160 Million Christians in America, just vision that all of them or even half of them took Friday off of work and showed up at their local state capital demanding action in regards to a justice issue. Then imagine if they showed up on Monday too, and Tuesday ...

Faithful cords of love

Sometimes God just amazes me with how faithful he truly is. His promise to go after the one lost sheep continually shatters my fleshly expectations. If you read our blog you may remember us sharing one of the toughest days ever, when CPS came and removed 2 brothers and 1 sister from their mom's custody. The blessing is that we are still in contact with the children and one of our friends still gets to come to her J-Pod (small group) every week now. The greater blessing is that today after school we are picking her up and taking her out, unfortunately to a cold government building, but one where her 2 Brothers will be waiting to visit with her. It is extremely hard in so many ways, but still so amazing how God can be so faithful to keep a family connected even through brutal brokenness.

The LORD places the lonely in families but even moreso he fights to keep them there. Amen!

P.s. We now have a community web site to share more of what is happening, check it out at www.lifetogether614.com , Its growing and will soon be a place for our small groups to connect in cyberspace. Also soon we will be able to highlight some of the justice issues in our community and what God is doing about it.

Risky Missions

Risk taker of the day - Boniface, 721 a.d.

"Boniface resorted to reckless challenges to prove the superiority of the Christian God over the pagan god's. For instance he decided to "lay the axe at the root of the tree of superstition."

At Geismar, in eastern Germany, he learned about a huge ancient oak that had been dedicated to Thor, the god of thunder. A tradition had developed that anyone who touched the tree with an axe would be treated as a desecrator by Thor. This involved a curse that would entail either extreme physical illness or death.

In the presence of a large number of pagans, Boniface boldly buried the cutting edge of the axe into the sacred tree. He continued to chop, while the onlookers reviled him and warned him of his impending fate. Before the task was finished, a strong gust of wind toppled the tree. As it crashed to the ground, the tree split into four parts. The pagans expected evil spirits to leap from the shattered tree and swarm Boniface.

Since no misfortune plagued him, Boniface made a cross from the wood. Then assisted by some onlookers who changed over to his side, Boniface hewed timbers from the tree and erected a chapel to honor St Peter. This convinced the pagans that Boniface was the messenger of the true God, and many embraced the new faith."

From Exploring Evangelism (Pg. 102)

God grant us fresh boldness like this!

Update

Hey everyone !

Just an update. We have been transitioning from summer to back to school schedule, we will re-open our after school ministry this Monday. We are looking forward to cell groups kicking back up, we have renamed them J-Pods. Some exciting news, you may have caught that we live next door to a crack house. The owners contacted us and would be willing to renovate it if we would be willing to rent it. Six months ago we were cleaning it out and praying that God would give it to us, I forgot about that prayer apparently God did not !

Be blessed.