Democrats and Jesus

Don Miller was invite to offer a benediction at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night. Here is his prayer in video and in text

"Father God,

This week, as the world looks on, help the leaders in this room create a civil dialogue about our future.

We need you, God, as individuals and also as a nation.

We need you to protect us from our enemies, but also from ourselves, because we are easily tempted toward apathy.

Give us a passion to advance opportunities for the least of these, for widows and orphans, for single moms and children whose fathers have left.

Give us the eyes to see them, and the ears to hear them, and hands willing to serve them.

Help us serve people, not just causes. And stand up to specific injustices rather than vague notions.

Give those in this room who have power, along with those who will meet next week, the courage to work together to finally provide health care to those who don’t have any, and a living wage so families can thrive rather than struggle.

Help us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give children an equal opportunity to get a college education.

Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony.

We have tried to solve these problems ourselves but they are still there. We need your help.

Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world.

A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.

Will you give us favor and forgiveness, along with our allies around the world.

Help us be an example of humility and strength once again.

Lastly, father, unify us.

Even in our diversity help us see how much we have in common.

And unify us not just in our ideas and in our sentiments—but in our actions, as we look around and figure out something we can do to help create an America even greater than the one we have come to cherish.

God we know that you are good.

Thank you for blessing us in so many ways as Americans.

I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice.

Let Him be our example.

Amen."

Why I'm Not Watching the Olympics

Rusty's Reasons Not to Watch the Olympics

1. We have no arch enemy. When I was growing up it was always the USA versus the Soviet Union. It was like your bitter rivalry and struggle for world dominance every four years. You hated those red uniforms with CCCP on them (still don't know what that stands for). Today who cares? We need an arch nemesis. Until we do the NFL preseason is more interesting.

2. Time Zones. Who wants to set up until 1:30AM to see the USA play basketball. I could watch the replay but ESPN, Fox News, CNN, and the Today Show tickers already told me who won.

3. Who Are These People? OK I know the basketball players. I know who Michael Phelps is because he must be the only USA athlete since he is all they ever talk about. I even know Shawn Johnston. But seriously, I have never heard of the rest of these people and after these games are over, Phelps goes on every TV show program, and the Wheaties box goes back to normal, when will you ever hear of these people again? I know, in four years when the Olympics is in London. It is hard to cheer for people you don't know.

4. Could we get some real sports? I am the last to criticize something as not being a real sport but this is ridiculous. Yes these events require skill. They require amazing skill and I could never do them. I'll even give events that have been events for 100 years plus a break. But are the following real sports: Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline, Hand Ball, Badminton, Synchronised swimming, Table Tennis, Synchronized diving? In 2012 softball will no longer be an Olympic sport I think they had to scratch it to make room for paint ball or laser tag or maybe fishing. This morning I turned on the Olympics to see Badminton. Are you kidding me?

So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore (Part 2)

Just finished the book and here are my thoughts:

Many times we can get so wrapped up into supporting any system (church, a business, relationships, etc) that we forget the reason they exist. Sometimes church becomes more about sustaining church than fulfilling Jesus purpose for the church. Sometimes church becomes a substitute for real spirituality. We can substitute a relationship with God for a program, event, or a chance to get involved in something. These are not bad things in and of themselves. If we aren't careful we can get us busy doing church things and forget about doing spiritual things. We can teach a Bible class but not spend time letting God's word speak to us. We can attend a give-away day but not help those in need in our own neighborhood. Sometimes all the programs and events give us a false sense or security and feeling like our involvement equals a relationship with God.

We define commitment to God by commitment to the church's programs and events. I never thought about this but it is true. If someone isn't involved in a program we can look down on them for not being committed or desiring to grow. But it could be that they live a busy life, are involved in things they don't parade out in public, going through personal struggles, or maybe they just can't make the meetings. It could be a reflection on their commitment to God but probably not.

You can find fault in everything. There is no perfect church, ministry, minister, Christian, etc. Some things need reformed but if you focus on all the faults you will find that you will never be happy or satisfied. This book highlights every fault of the church. Sure they exist but come on if I wanted I could highlight all the faults of his religious views.

Don't treat the symptoms treat the problem. If we helped people fall in love with Jesus all the other will take care of it self. We can treat symptoms (attendance, prayer life, bible reading, etc) all day long but the problem is someone's desire to love and know God.

Everyone is on a journey and there is no cookie cutter answer to life. The solution to our love, trust, and desire for God will be different for each of us. We will all connect to God differently and we all have different lives and responses to them.

Don't scrap everything. He suggest that real Christianity is best lived separate of any structured system. I could tell you 50 things wrong with our church if I had enough time to get out the microscope and highlight every fault but that doesn't mean you should just quit and throw it all out.

Read people that take extreme views from your own. I loved this book. I disagreed with allot of it but it made me think and grow. If we never read alternative views we will have little perspective and cheat ourselves from chances to grow.

Olympics at Their Best

This is a qualifying swim meet at the 2000 Olympics. The commentary is great!!

http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2008/08/08

So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore

"So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore". I saw this book title and thought I have to get this. How many of us have not wanted to go to church anymore? I have quit in my past and some days I just want to quit. Dan Kimball wrote a book "They Love Jesus not the Church" I feel like that sometimes. So I buy the book off of Amazon, get the book, and discover it is a book about a minister. Wow! So I am hooked and begin to read and it is messing with me. It is a thought provoking book and sometimes hits a little too close to home. It is provocative and almost hyperbolic or maybe he is just that radical but it is about a minister who is struggling with his faith and he meets the apostle John. It is based off of Jesus saying "If I want this one to remain alive until I return then what is it to you." So John is trying to help him find God but in the meantime causes nothing but turmoil in his life. Here is a little of my favorite section so far (only on chapter 5).

"You are so caught up in a system of reward and punishment that you're missing the simple relationship he (God) wants to have with you."

"How are we going to know how God feels about us if we don't live up to his standards?"

"That is where you have it backwards. We don't get his love by living up to his standards. We find his love in the most broken place of our lives. As we let him love us there and discover how to love in return, we'll find our lives changing in that relationship."

"How can that be? Don't we have to walk away from sin to know him?"

"Walking toward him is walking away from sin. The better you know him the freeer from it you will be. But you can't walk away from sin. Not on your own strength! Everything he wants to do in you will get done as your learn to live in his love. Every act of sin results from your mistrust of his love and intentions for you. We sin to fill up broken places, to try to fight for what we think is best for us, or by reacting to our guilt and shame. Once you discover how much he loves you, all that changes. As you grow in trusting him, you will find yourself increasingly free from sin."

"It sounds so easy when you say it. But learning to live that way would be the opposite of everything I've been taught."

"That's why it is called good news."

The Shack

I bought The Shack a few weeks ago because everyone seems to be reading it. It takes a while to get into this book. The first four chapters lay the backdrop and most everyone I talk to agree these are not the best reading. The rest of the book will have you hooked and you will not want to put it down.

The Shack is about a man (Mack) whose daughter was abducted and murdered. They were able to track him down to a little shack where they recovered his daughter's dress and could see her blood. They never recovered her body and Mack and his family never recovered from this tragedy. Four years later Mack receives a letter inviting him to the shack signed Papa or his wife's favorite name for God. Mack decides to go while his wife and kids are away for the weekend. He arrived at the shack and there he meets and spends the weekend with God.

The conversations he has with God are amazing and the author blends theological concepts into the story. A few things that he discusses in the book is: the role of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the problem of pain and suffering; forgiveness; our relationship with God and his with us; and the need and role of relationships.

The book is about one man's journey to be healed from the pain he has lived through the death of his daughter and a bad childhood. His conversations with God will stimulate your mind and you will want to discuss it with others and pass the book on to others.

You can get the book on Amazon for $9 or at any bookstore. This is a good read and I would recommend it to anyone. Just be patient through the first 4 chapters.

Preaching

Every week I listen or sit through 2 to 4 sermons a week. I hear two at church and then listen to a couple more via the internet. I like to listen to different people to learn how to be a better speaker. I love listening to Andy Stanley. He is the only speaker that I think is consistent in delivering a powerful message week after week. I listen to a wide variety of other guys on i-tunes: Rob Bell, John Piper, Tim Spivey, Kieth Davis, Matt Chandler, Don McLaughlin, Joel Olsteen ( I need encouragement), and others. Sometimes I just listen to a random person to see what I discover. I have been trying to break down what makes some guys good, others OK, and some just terrible.

Application. This is what separates the good from the bad. They all have different ways and styles of conveying the gospel but the one common thread is application. The best spend at least 30% of their lesson telling you how God's word applies to your life. They help you see how God's word looks when it is lived out in everyday life. They illustrate it and walk you through common situations that you will face this week.

Too many speakers give a 3 minute application at the end of the lesson and the average person has to go home and try to figure out what to do with the lesson. The best tell you what to do with the lesson. When you leave, you know how to apply God's word to your life and when you will need to use this information.

The amazing this is the more I read Paul the more I see that this is what he did. He addressed a problem and then illustrated it to give the readers insight into what this looked like in their life. You can read Paul and know exactly what he wanted the readers to do and how it looked in their world.

So what do you think the best do?