Real.

Tiffany and I took a vacation for our tenth wedding anniversary this past weekend. We wanted to do something a bit more memorable than the weekend stay at the local Holiday Inn we took for our “honeymoon” ten years ago. After thinking through a few different ideas we both thought a trip up north, and across the border, to Niagara Falls would be a weekend we would definitely enjoy and remember. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect to be honest with you. I had seen my fair share of Niagara Falls pictures (especially when researching where to go), and I had even seen it on TV a time or two. But nothing could prepare me for seeing the REAL thing.
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Tabitha’s Closet

Has anyone been to Goodwill lately? Maybe you’ve noticed their new line of “high quality” donation-wear complete with fresh new “high-quality” prices to match. Seriously, walking into your local Goodwill these days is like walking into a Walmart, except everything isn’t new, the floors are sticky, and the air is thick with the musty-perfume only age can bring. I don’t know if Goodwill is looking to flip it’s image into the next discount retailer or simply adjusting for inflation, but the last time I checked they get their inventory for uuummmmm… FREE! So no matter which way you slice that pie, it doesn’t make sense for them to charge the under-resourced and poor $6 for a t-shirt given to them for FREE! Where’s the goodwill in that?

This is why I love what Kim Martin (a woman in our 610 community) is doing with a group of other women in the area. They have launched a new venture - Tabitha’s Closet - to bring fresh, clean, lightly worn clothing to the poor and homeless in our community for FREE! The real kind of free. The kind where a family who has no money to spend on needed clothing can walk in, find what they need, and walk out without the need to pull out the latest super-saver-frequent-shopper-discount card or even pay at all. How awesome is that?

Here is how we can help…

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8.1-9.34

Matthew 8:1-9.34 | Matthew has this huge chunk of miracle stories, large enough to choke a mule, all grouped together in chapters 8 and 9. You have to understand that it is well worth the time to take these stories as individual nuggets, sitting on them for a few hours, or even a few days; but there are times when it is incredibly clarifying (not to mention satisfying…mmmm…mmmmm) to step back from our “bible microscope” and look at the big picture Matthew is painting.

These miracle stories are loaded with the healings of people who are in agony: some have leprosy, another guy is paralyzed, another one is naked and possessed by a demon (not good on either account!), still others are blind or mute, and one girl is just stone-cold dead. Jesus heals them all. He even has a moment where he tells, no, commands, the winds and the waves to stop. This is earth-shattering stuff. But why does he do it?

What’s the point of all the miracles?

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The Search for Greatness

This is just a great fun video to check out. But I think there is also something profound about the search for greatness we all have. Did you grow up believing you were destined for greatness? What does that mean for those of us called to God’s restoration work within this world?

The Celtic Way of Evangelism

A while back I read a book about St. Patrick called, The Celtic Way of Evangelism. It was one of those life shifting books that made me stop and think about what evangelism truly was. At the core of the book is the contrast between the Roman model for evangelism and the Celtic model for evangelism. Most of us have naturally inherited the Roman model for evangelism based on logic and reason, but St. Patrick and the Christian community that developed under his leadership opted for a different world of evangelism. In the end, they created a culture shift so large that the entire country of Ireland was “Christianized” within 2-3 generations. St. Patrick alone was responsible for the development of over 1000 pastors and planted over 700 churches at a time when the established church argued over what date Easter should fall on and what the hair-do should be (I’m not kidding!).

Check out these contrasting excerpts from The Celtic Way of Evangelism, by George Hunter:

“Bluntly stated, the Roman model for reaching people is: 1) Present the Christian message; 2) Invite them to decide to believe in Christ and become Christians and 3) If they decide positively, welcome them into the church and its fellowship. The Roman model seems very logical to us because most American evangelicals are scripted by it! We explain the gospel, they accept Christ, we welcome them into the church! Presentation, Decision, Assimilation. What could be more logical than that?

The Celtic model for reaching people works like this: 1) You first establish community with people, or bring them into the fellowship of your community of faith. 2) Within fellowship, you engage in conversation, ministry, prayer, and worship. 3) In time, as they discover that they now believe, you invite them to commit.”

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8.5-13

Matthew 8:5-13 | The Sermon on the Mount was more than words to Jesus. As he descends down the mountain he touches an outcast and now receives the “enemy”. A Roman Centurion, of all people, seeks Jesus out and asks him if he would heal his servant’s suffering. Could you imagine the hush that would have come over the crowd as a centurion approaches this rabbi? Why was this centurion even seeking him out? What was Jesus going to say? Would Jesus actually help these foreign soldiers?

Not only does Jesus listen to him, he agrees to go and heal the centurion’s servant. Jesus is living out the words “love your enemies” right in front of us. But maybe even more amazing is the response of the centurion. He stops Jesus (imagine stopping Jesus… “no, wait a second Jesus“) and says something that at first appears a bit strange but is so profound it should make us take a second and think. In fact, it was such an amazing insight that the text says Jesus was “astonished”. Okay, I said a second ago, imagine stopping Jesus… now imagine astonishing Jesus!
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Let us not shrink back.

I recently came across this quote from Nelson Mandela and thought about how often I do not push forward in faith because I am worried about what others will think… The line in my head runs something like, [take deep breath] “If I pray on my knees in front of everyone (or fill in about 1000 other things) then they will think that I am trying to be some super spiritual person and I know that I am not really that spiritual of a person I am a sinner just like everyone else but I would like to be on my knees because isn’t that where sinful people belong but if I get on my knees then everyone else is going to think that I think that they aren’t spiritual since they aren’t on their knees and I would rather not make them uncomfortable after all if they’re thinking about me being on my knees then that means they aren’t thinking about praying nevermind the fact that I am not thinking about praying because I am thinking about them thinking about praying while I should be praying anyways if I start praying on my knees now during prayer then I am only going to think about what they’re thinking about more…”

Sad, I know… but unfortunately that is the lame thinking that rolls through my head at times. But recently in talking with a new friend (Jason) here in Pittsburgh about this desire to be great, but at the same time shrinking away from it because I don’t want others to feel insecure he pointed this Nelson Mandela quote out to me that I wanted to share…
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Standing For Jesus In Orissa

This video is from Voice of the Martyrs, a Christian ministry dedicated to bringing Bibles and hope to persecuted Christians around the world. I just love the ending of this video!

Story via Voice of the Martyrs

8.1-4

Matthew 8:1-4 | The moment when Jesus healed the man with leprosy is shocking when you begin to think about it. It’s shocking because Jesus touched him. He didn’t have to. He could have said, “be healed” or something cooler like, “leprosy be gone”, who knows…. But he didn’t. He touched him. He touched an unclean outcast who had probably not been touched in a long, long time.

Sometimes I think we all forget that part. We are so eager for a person to “get saved” that we forget how important touch is. We tell them how Jesus can heal their brokenness but forget to touch the pain. Jesus did not have to touch him to heal him - he chose to. He identified with the hurt and pain of the leper in a way only touching could. We have to remember that in proclaiming the salvation of God we are also the hands of God. We are his body.
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