My Revolution

My revolution starts today.

I have been wanting one of the new smartphones for sometime. Since the introduction of the Apple phone a few years ago, I have been salivating at the chance to renew my Verizon contact and get one of these smart phones, hoping that one day Verizon and Apple do what everyone thinks they should do. So now for more than a year my contract has been up and I have been waiting to see how life shapes out and what new smartphones come out as the technology gets better. The culmination was a visit to Verizon today to finally get the phone that I always wanted.

For weeks I have been prepping my wife to allow me to get the more expensive contract from Verizon, because of course to have a Smartphone, one must also sign up for the 30.00 a month unlimited data package. I had told her how it would revolutionize my ministry with the students, giving me the ability to converse easier, respond faster, and generally be a better Pastor. It would be an extension of myself, the better me. All of this and more would be the new me, the me after today.

And finally I have my new phone, my revolution can start, but not the one you're thinking of. You see I didn't end up walking out of Verizon holding a smartphone. I instead walked out with the free phone, the regular phone, and this is why:

A few months back a couple that are goods friends of my wife and I from delaware, Ohio had read some book and were challenged by the words of the author. They in fact were so challenged they were sent on a journey by God that has now led them to purchase tickets to go to South Africa and see the mission work going on in that country. I have also heard from others the immensity that this book has brought upon their heart, so I too decided to read the book.

I purchased the book several months ago and placed in my book pile of books to read. This is my typical style of reading through books, but I must admit I was a little worried about this book because it seemed to challenge my friends whom I thought were already pretty good Christians. These friends gave time and money to all sorts of causes and lived on as little as possible in order to help as many as possible. How could a book challenge someone already doing so much? As someone who tries to give and do as much as I can to help those in need this scared me a little. Could this book challenge me more? So I have been putting it off for a while, that is until this past week.

Having just finished a couple books that I was reading through for the series in youth group I have been teaching on, I thought about which book I should focus on for myself. My own growth, my own pleasure and this particular book 'called out' to me. Ok not an actual physical call out, but I felt it was time to open the pages, and I haven't put it down since.

I can't get it out of my mind, I feel compelled to write about it (see my Facebook page over the last week), I feel compeled to talk about it, and I feel compeled to do something about it. It is this DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, that totally ruined my plans today.

As I walked from my car into the Verizon store today it hit me like a ton of bricks. Thirty dollars a month so that I can check my email on the phone (there are other really cool things too)? That adds up to $360.00 over the year, and $720.00 over two year! Is 720 dollars for internet integration worth it after I have read this book? How can I change the world in the next two years for $720.00 dollars?

1. Buy 3 goats and 3 sheep to help the poor become self reliant @ http://www.heifer.org/
2. Build a well for the thirsty @ http://www.icdinternational.org/
3. Sponser a child to eat, go to school and learn about Jesus @ http://www.compassion.com/
4. Plant a church in the C.A.R. @ http://www.gbim.org/
5. Purchase 17 orphan survival kits @ http://www.visiontrust.org/

Buy, build, sponser, plant and purchase all words of action. All words that require me to think outside of my own personal wants and desires causing a revolution within myself. How can I knowingly spend 30 a month for email on my phone when I can literally change the world instead? I can change the physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental status of so many people in the world simply by refusing to give in to what I am told I want by my consumeristic tendencies. A revolt.

My mind races.

At what point did I think this was my money? I was always taught to give ten percent to God and do what I want with the rest, but honestly, I no longer see this in the scriptures. Robin and I have always tithed the 10%, but is that really what the Bible, and more importantly God requires of us? This money was never mine to begin with, it has always been God's. The Bible says I am a steward, not an owner. This isn't my money to control, but it is mine to invest. How do I invest wisely?

Investment is more than putting money in some account, some stock, some fund and waiting, it is totally denying myself and following Christ, even to places that I don't want to go. Invest requires sacrifice of money, time, and self instead, focusing on the true things of God. It means revolting against what I've been taught: that it is mine to do with what I want.

A revolution of the mind.

REVOLUTION.

Mine starts today.

___________

Whatever you do, don't read, "A Hole in Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns.

Quote

"For I was hungry, while you had all you needed. I was thirsty and you bought bottled water. I was a stranger and you wanted me deported. I needed clothes but you needed MORE clothes. I was sick and you pointed out the behaviors that led to my sickness. I was in prison and you said I was getting what I deserved." -Richard Stearns "A Hole in our Gospel

I have been mulling over this quote for some time now. For some christians this quote makes them angry and lash out at those that imply they aren't 'doing' enough, because they don't have to 'work' out their salvation. For other christians, this is a poor interpretation of the passage in Matthew, and should not be given a second thought. Other Christians might fear that non-believers might read this and get the wrong impression of Christians. Then there are the few of us that read this and think about the ways that we have not been Jesus to those in need, and make a resolution to change our ways. I where you stand on this spectrum...

The Ten Righteous

Sodom and Gomorrah have been used countless times to demonstrate the wickedness of man as well as the consequences of God against sinful people. This story shows a God who is fed up with two cities and is going to destroy them in order to protect the people living around their evil cities.

The cities are toxic and must be destroyed.

Before God goes there though, He sends three angels (some believe these represent the trinity)to go and inspect the city. On their way to the city (apparently they couldn't just 'beam' there, they had to walk...), they stop and eat with Abraham. Abraham figuring out what the intentions of God are, asks them, if they would spare the cities if there were 50 righteous people found within the walls. God grants this request and will not destroy the cities if fifty righteous are found. Next Abraham goes down to 45 righteous, and God relents again. This process continues until Abraham takes Him down to just ten righteous individuals, God agrees and the angels leave Abraham to go and inspect the city. I am sure you know what happens next...

I have always wondered what 'fire and brimstone' is actually like. It says that the cities were completely consumed never to be found again, so this fiery brimstone must be pretty potent stuff.

March 19, 2003 mark the date that the Iraqi War (Operation Iraqi Freedom) started. This war started with the dropping of millions of dollars worth of bombs and munitions in order to 'shock and awe' the Iraq's into submission. Many areas of the country were completely destroyed and/or left in ruins.

Iraq rests in the center of the Muslim world, but also has an interesting Christian heritage. Christians have been living there for the last two thousand years. It has been attested that almost one million christians lived in Iraq before the first Gulf War and about 800,000 lived there before Operation Iraqi Freedom. In case your wondering, that is one of the highest populations of christians within the Muslim world. Currently though this population has dwindled far below 800,000 and continues to dwindle as the persecution against christians continues.

Many questions have swirled around the United States and the world before, during and currently about this conflict in Iraq. Should we be there? Are our troops adequately equipped? What should the strategy be? While these questions are good ones to think about, I want to add another:

Should we drop a bomb on a nation if there are fifty righteous? Forty-five? Thirty? Twenty? What about only ten righteous, should we drop a bomb if there are ten righteous?

So this past week I was working on a sermon for my homiletics class. I selected the verses from Luke 21:1-4 which says:

As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. "I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.

In thinking through this passage I wonder, what does the wirter mean that she gave all that she had to live on. Does that mean she literally isn't going to eat until she finds some money? Does she have food at home? Does she even have a home? As so on...

I look at this passage and wonder what I am supposed to do with it as a Christian and a pastor. Is this a pattern for me that I should give literally everything to God? How does one do that and actually live? Is my faith so small that I think God won't protect me or do I have a healthy sense of reality to know I can't give EVERYTHING?

What does everything mean?

Interesting reads

Here are fifteen books that I have read that continue to stick with me. Have you read them? What did you think of them?

1. Barbarian Way - Erwin McManus
2. They Like Jesus but not the church - Dan Kimball
3. Jesus for President - Shane Claiborne
4. Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell
5. The Shack - Wm. Paul Young
6. The Bible - God
7. Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger - Ronald J. Sider
8. The Five Love Languages - Gary Chapman
9. The Last Word - N.T. Wright
10. Uprising - Erwin McManus
11. The Only Necessary Thing - Henri Nouwen
12. Every Mans Battle - Steven Arterburn
13. The Knowledge of the Holy - A.W. Tozer
14. In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day - Mark Batterson
15. In the Name of Jesus - Henri Nouwen

Random things that I have done

1. When I was little I used to pronounce the word 'helicopter' as Hooter-cop-turd

2. Somewhere in the world is a picture of me standing with two transgender Argentinians at a bus depot in Buenos Aires...

3. In seventh grade I asked out every girl in the school

4. In seventh grade I was turned down by every girl in the school

5. I puked on Michael W. Smith 6. I want to travel to all fifty states

7. I knew Robin was the one two years before we started dating... she was actually dating my best friend at the time... I wonder why I never see him any more

8. I have spent more than one year of my life outside the United States

9. I believe the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about

10. I made up number 5

11. In the eighth grade I went up to the captain of the high school football team, rubbed his head and said "I have never felt a Monkey's butt before"

12. I have drank a twelve pack of Mountain Dew in a single day

13. Someday I want to get a tatoo on my ring finger symbolizing the marriage that I am in

14. While trimming branches this past year I fell out of a tree but luckily wedged myself between two branches... thank you Mountain Dew belly!

15. I once spent Christmas in Novosibirsk, Russia 16. I was bitten in the bottom of the shoe by a venomous snake...right before I crushed his head.

The foreigner, the widow and the orphan

The book of Deuteronomy totally knocked me out yesterday. How many times have I read this book and completely missed these several verses. Has the church intentionally left these verses out? Is there some conspiracy to not look at the Bible in its' entirity and explain it to the people? Why am I and many around me so naive to the spefics found within the book?

Churches for centuries have instructed parishioners to give a tenth of what they make. Usually this is called a tithe and as a guide the tithe is ten percent. This guide is taken from various places throughout the Old Testament, one of them being Deuteronomy 14:22-27. These verses together show that a tenth of what you make should be returned to God, the problem is that every church I have heard talk about this, never continues this passage on. In verse 14:28-29 there is something interesting, the verses read as follows (NIV):

28 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, 29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
(parallel in Deut. 26:12-14)

Do you realize what this says? Not only are people supposed to tithe, but one years worth of that tithe is supposed to be set aside to help, the widows, orphans and foreigners of the land. With a little math that means that before the New Testament at least 33% of all tithes were going to help those who could not help themselves. How many churches do this? If we encourage those in our congregations to tithe ten percent, should churches not first budget by the 33% rule?

Other questions come to mind. Like who is the foreigner? Is the foreigner only those who are in this country legally, or should we help those in the country illegally? If we shouldn't help the illegal immigrants, then why doesn't it say which ones we should help and which we shouldn't? Why is the conservative church so against the illegal immigrant, when the Bible does not differentiate between the two? What about Deut. 10:18 where it says give the alien (foreigner) food and clothing, how do we reconcile this? Or, Deut. 24:19-21 should we not leave the sheaf, the olive, and the grape for the illegal alien?

Deut. 27:19 says that those who withhold from the widow, orphan and foreigner are to be cursed. Hwat does it mean to be cursed? Is the church cursed for not caring? Again, does it mean that if I don't help the illegal alien I am cursed?

... just ponderings from a passage...